The Boundaries of Imagination
Important aspects of fantasy translation
Author: Marlies Kok
Student no: 3125165
Translation Master Thesis
First Reader: Ton Naaijkens
Second Reader: Cees Koster
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 3
Chapter 1 – The Importance of the Setting ............................................................................................. 6
Chapter 2 – Aspects of Culture .............................................................................................................. 15
The four categories of fantasy cultures......................................................................................... 15
Government in fantasy settings .................................................................................................... 23
Translating fantasy names and (ir)realia ....................................................................................... 26
Chapter 3 – Translating Contemporary Fantasy.................................................................................... 30
Greg Stolze - A Hunger Like Fire .................................................................................................... 34
Discussing A Hunger Like Fire ........................................................................................................ 44
Neil Gaiman - American Gods ....................................................................................................... 47
Discussing American Gods ............................................................................................................. 54
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Good Omens .............................................................................. 55
Discussing Good Omens ................................................................................................................ 63
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files: Storm Front and Fool Moon ..................................................... 64
Discussing Storm Front and Fool Moon ......................................................................................... 79
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 82
Appendix A – Original Source Texts ...................................................................................................... 85
A Hunger Like Fire ......................................................................................................................... 85
American Gods .............................................................................................................................. 89
Good Omens .................................................................................................................................. 93
Storm Front ................................................................................................................................... 99
Fool Moon ................................................................................................................................... 103
Bibliography......................................................................................................................................... 109
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Introduction
The literary genre of fantasy is not new, but in the thousands of years of literature, the concept of
fantasy literature is relatively long; it has been around for at about a century in its modern definition,
since the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Though at that time it may not yet have been
called such, it is said by some today that Tolkien was the father of all modern fantasy, though names
such as Edith Nesbit and Lewis Carroll are also mentioned in that role (Nikolajeva, 139). Some might
say the genre is older than just a century, having been present since the arrival of the Gothic novel,
the fairytales of medieval times or the mythology of the old world, the Greek, Irish, or Scandinavian
folk tales. Most of these examples certainly tick the boxes of what are today considered to be
hallmarks of a fantasy novel, but mostly because they were the greatest source of inspiration for the
eclectic genre that is fantasy (Nikolajeva, 139). Magic, powerful gods, strange creatures, other worlds
even, all are tropes to be found in those traditional tales as well as our modern fantasy. Fantasy is
part of man, as old as the world itself perhaps, but its current written form, the modern fantasy
genre, has only gained in popularity in the last sixty years.
The novels that have been written since Tolkien first wrote about that hobbit that lived in a
hole in the ground are numerous, and especially in the last twenty years more and more fantasy
authors have come out of the woodworks. And of these many authors, only a handful has written
their novels for children; the main target audience of the largest contributors to the genre are
(young) adults. It is strange then, that in modern translation studies, adult fantasy translation seems
to be a suppositious child. Scrolling through any translation studies database with the ‘fantasy’
keyword in the search machine will give up pages and pages of articles and books about translating
children’s literature and the role of fantasy in them, but next to nothing about translating fantasy for
adults, even though those novels come with their own set of problems. They can be thrillers, spy
mysteries or might fall into many other genres; dramatic stories set in a completely different world
and often very graphic in content, with violence and sexuality. Sometimes such a world serves only as
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a new framework in which to tell the tale, but more often than not the world itself is an intricate part
of the plot, the field for great feats of magic, political intrigue or titanic power struggles which would
not fit into our own world. And with these worlds come new, unknown parameters within which the
translator must stay, and they are far stricter parameters than in fantasy children’s literature. For
children, the main purpose of a fantasy tale is to amuse, and a secondary purpose might be to teach.
However, fantasy novels with an adult audience are often created to cast a critical eye on a specific
source culture, historic events or human behaviour (Loponen, 165). To keep these allusions or
metaphors recognisable for the target audience, the translator must be aware of the framework in
which the novel was written. For if the parameters are not kept, and the world is not believably
translated within the framework the author imagined for it, then the adult fantasy reader could fail
to recognise the underlying intention of the author and the novel might lose its momentum.
Then why has the translation of adult fantasy been so ignored in the translation studies? The
answer might be found in the way literary scientists view the genre; it is not considered ‘proper’
literature and therefore not worthy of such attention. That attitude is certainly misplaced, however.
A fantasy author is not any less of an author than any other, or any less read. As mentioned above,
they often handle the same subjects as those acclaimed literary authors, only against the backdrop of
an unknown world which gives them more freedom in writing, for they do not have to worry about
the cultural parameters of our own world; they can create their own. For example, Terry Goodkind
writes about how one type of people wishes to annihilate the other, to create the perfect human
race in his Sword of Truth series. Philip Pullman investigates what the world would look like if the
Church ruled it in his His Dark Materials trilogy, as well as playing with the many-worlds theory from
quantum physics. He even goes as far as killing God in the last instalment, a scene that caused great
outrage amongst the religious community. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings may be one of the
most undervalued literary works of the last century, considering its subject matter touches on many
things, from an epic struggle between good and evil to the personal struggles of many of its
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characters. However, titles of fantasy have rarely found their way into scholarly discussions, and it is
not so strange then that in translation studies, the fantasy genre is also underrepresented.
This thesis will be an attempt to change this. It will investigate the challenges provided by
translating contemporary fiction and fantasy fiction for adults, with a special focus on contemporary
fantasy, and attempt to list the important aspects of a fantasy novel that a translator will have to
take into account. The biggest challenge of any fantasy author is to keep the setting and story
believable, logic and consistent, and to lead the reader into the stage of willing suspension of
disbelief for full enjoyment of the story. The translator’s challenge is to retain this feeling in the
translation. It is the goal of this thesis to aid the fantasy translator into meeting this challenge by
attempting to list the aspects of the novel to which the translator should pay attention from the
outset. Its focus will be on the different parameters in contemporary fiction and fantasy fiction, the
cultural differences in source and target language as well as the existing world versus the fantasy
world, and the role a fantasy world may or may not play in the general plot of the novel. In reviewing
the translation process of adult fantasy, the main focus will be on the fantasy setting, government
and politics, and realia. These common aspects of a fantasy have been gathered by extensive reading
of the genre and translating several excerpts from (contemporary) fantasy fiction. This thesis will
strive to combine all findings to conclude which are the most important aspects to take into account
while translating fantasy, with the hope that it will shed some light on this somewhat obscure corner
of translation.
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Chapter 1 – The Importance of the Setting
The literary genre of modern fantasy has been gaining strength, momentum and popularity among
readers in the last twenty years and in Hollywood in the last ten. With the influx of fantasy novels,
the translation of the genre has also taken flight. Nearly all novels mentioned in this thesis have been
translated to Dutch and many other languages, and books like the Harry Potter-series by J.K. Rowling
and the Twilight-series by Stephanie Meyer are immensely popular amongst a broad audience. Other
popular writers that have been translated to Dutch are Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, George R.R.
Martin, Robert Jordan and J.R.R. Tolkien. While translating a fantasy novel, one of the first things the
translator has to familiarize themselves with is the setting. This chapter will, using many original
fantasy works as an example, discuss the importance of that element of the novel , as it is essentially
that which denote whether the novel is part of the fantasy genre or not. It will explain the
characteristics of fantasy as well as discuss the different ways in which the setting can add to the
story.
The commonplace characteristics of the genre are simple: a fantasy novel contains elements
that are impossible in the realistic world. The most common occurrence of unrealism is the
supernatural such as magic and gods who interact with the world, or creatures such as werewolves,
vampires and elves (Clute, “Fantasy” 338). The story will most likely be set in a world other than our
own, a fantasy world sprung from the imagination of the author, but that is the case in only part of
the novels falling under the genre; for example the sub-genre of contemporary fantasy mixes fantasy
with our own contemporary world (Clute and Kaveney, 225), while urban fantasy does the same, but
in an urban setting (Clute, “Urban Fantasy” 975).
In most fantasy novels, the imagined setting is often based on our own world, with humans
inhabiting it in a feudal world reminiscent of a (romanticised) medieval western Europe, as in
Raymond E. Feist’s Midkemia from the novel Magician or George R.R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms in his
A Song of Ice and Fire series, or other historic cultures, such as feudal Japan in Feist’s Empire Trilogy
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or the Mongol-like Dothraki in A Song of Ice and Fire. Sometimes the world is completely different
from ours, such as the world of the mulefa - sentient animals whose four legs are set in a diamond
fashion: one in the front and back, one to each side - in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
The world can be inhabited by only humans or have such fantasy creatures as elves, dwarves, orcs
and goblins appear in it as well. The most important characteristic of the fantasy genre however is
that it only describes the setting in which the novel is set. Within this fantasy setting, many types of
stories can be told. Thrillers, murder mysteries, comedies, political intrigue, dramas, all can and have
been set against a fantastical background, providing a wide variety of tastes for the reader of fantasy.
The fantasy setting is therefore one of the most important aspects to take into account while
translating a fantasy novel, as it is a unique backdrop to the story with both similarities and
differences to known cultures and countries. The choice of a fantasy setting instead of the existing
world is usually one of significance, and it is therefore paramount that the setting loses nothing in
translation.
According to Josip Novakovich, author of the Fiction Writer’s Workshop, the setting is a very
important aspect of the novel as it answers two of the six questions – who, what, when, where, how
and why – an author must answer for themselves before starting to write the novel. Whether this is a
real or imagined setting makes little difference, as long as it is vivid and descriptive enough to be as
complete a background for the story as possible (Novakovich, 27). A setting can have various
functions, each of importance to the whole. It can function as the groundwork for the story, the
starting point from which the rest, the characters and the plot, will sprout. This is most likely the case
with every imagined setting; first the author creates the world (the setting), then he creates an image
of the people inhabiting it (the characters) and finally he thinks about how these people interact with
each other (the plot) (id. 28). The setting can also function as the antagonist (id. 30) or it can
influence the plot simply be being there and being menacing, or deadly, or difficult to traverse. The
antagonist can be the intense cold of the North Pole, or the intense heat of a desert, or the pathless
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tracks of a deep dark forest. It can be a new and big city that seems hostile towards the protagonist,
or a strange place full of mysteries that is dangerous to the ignorant. In Terry Goodkind’s Sword of
Truth series for example, there are several magical boundaries separating the different lands of the
world. The starting point of the first novel is Westland, a magic-less medieval-like country that is
peaceful and quiet but for the looming Boundary Mountains, which pose a danger to everyone who
comes near. For those mountains are actually the Underworld, and its creatures might cross the
boundary between life and death at night to snatch the unwary. It is an antagonistic piece of the
setting, which sprouted characters such as the Boundary Wardens, the men responsible to keep
everyone well clear from the hunting grounds of death’s creatures. Further on in the series there is
also a magical boundary between the north and the south of the continent, which drives all who go
through it insane through visions and hallucinations of their worst fears and nightmares or their best
hopes and wishes, drawing them in never to come out, unless the magic – a fickle power – ‘decides’
to let the person pass unscathed. In Pratchett’s and Gaiman’s Good Omens a part of the setting turns
against its maker, in the excerpt shown in Appendix A, by becoming one of the biggest obstacles on
his path. The demon Crowley designed the M25 around London to be a truly hellish highway, but
because the Apocalypse is nigh and the world is going crazy, the road has turned exactly as he
intended, hellish, so much so that even the demon would get in trouble if he were to cross it, even
though he must to get to his goal, the Anti-Christ. The setting can be a powerful tool to motivate
characters or signify important plot, but it can also be used to underline a character’s mindset, for
example by showing the setting through that character’s eyes, and colouring it through the
character’s thoughts and words.
Without the proper background it could be difficult to make the plot and the characters
alive, for they don’t only interact with each other but of course also with their surroundings; in a
fantasy setting, to make the characters and the plot believable and enjoyable, the setting has to be
believable and consistent too. In a way, while the fantasy setting does not necessarily have to be
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realistic, it has to feel realistic enough for the reader to believe it. The author must take special
caution that his setting is logical and inherently functional, being a world upon itself and a holistic
entity (Loponen, 166). Even if it is the most fantastical place ever imagined, if the reader does not
sense any logic to it, he might give it up as a bad job. The translator must pay heed to this, for if the
novel loses its sense of feigned realism in the translation, the characters and plot could suffer from it;
mistakes in character-setting interaction could be breaking the suspension of disbelief which, as
Nikolajeva describes, is the willingness of the reader to accept that which it reads as ‘true’ for the
purpose of the story (Nikolajeva, 152).
The contemporary world, the earth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, is
the setting in most novels written these past two decades. The advantage of a contemporary setting
is that “you will be rooted; you will draw new inspirations out of the houses and streets”
(Novakovich, 27). The advantage of an imagined setting as an author is that there are no boundaries
to take into account, but complete freedom in what things will be and look like. However, either
contemporary or imaginative, Novakovich underlines the importance of a well-written and vivid
background. He states that “without a strong sense of place, it’s hard to achieve suspense and
excitement – which depend on the reader’s sensation of being right there, where the action takes
place” (id. 26). In short, the reader must be able to go into a willing suspense of disbelief and see the
story in his mind’s eye, against a detailed background. This is very important for the translator to
keep in mind; if the translation fails to attain the same standard of description, if it is not expressed
as good in translation as it is in the source language, then the story loses momentum, for the
background frames the characters and the plot, and without a good idea of the background,
important aspects of the characters and plot might be lost.
There are several things in translating background descriptions that are the same in both
contemporary and fantasy settings. With a contemporary setting, it is often a place the author is very
familiar with, while the translator generally is not, having not visited every small town in America, for
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example. Sometimes, if the setting is a famous or a very big place, it may be that the translator has
experienced some of it through television or a visit, but more often than not it is a place grounded in
the author’s mind and strange to the translator’s mind. To try to reconstruct an unknown image from
the source language to the target language is possible, but the translation will most likely be
coloured by the translator’s own subjective view of that image if he or she is unfamiliar with it, as Jiri
Levý describes in his essay “Translation as a Decision Process.” Whenever the translator needs to
make a choice between one or more possible translations, then he will (hopefully) choose with the
author’s wishes and background in mind, but the final choice will be influenced by his own
background and ideas. Once the choice is made, all future choice will go along a similar path with the
intent to keep the text cohesive (Levý, 136).
The same can be said for a fantasy setting. The author of a fantasy novel generally has a
good idea of the world he’s writing and will have notes and maps about the important places and
aspects to keep all the facts straight to create the image in his head. The translator only has the
information provided in the novel itself to go on. Novakovich’s statement that a setting should be
vivid is especially true for an imagined setting, where the reader does not have many handholds of
reality to fall back on if the setting description falls short of complete. In translating both settings the
translator is bound to the parameters provided by the author, but in a contemporary setting the
translator is also bound by the parameters of the real world and cannot go beyond them. In a fantasy
setting however, those parameters may give a little more leeway, for they are unknown and
uncertain and it is not likely to be noticed by many if the translator strays a little from the path to
embellish a point or a place, to make it feel more alive, especially if the author does not give all the
information in the novel itself but keeps some things at hand to reveal at a later date. For example, in
Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, it is not completely clear how the seasons work; they are not as the
seasons in the real world, each lasting about three months of the year in a set cycle that keeps
repeating itself. In Westeros, the setting for the series, the seasons are controlled by something
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magical that as of yet has not been revealed. At the start of the first novel, Game of Thrones, what
the characters call ‘the long summer’ is just starting to turn into fall, and that summer lasted nine
years. In the world’s past there has been a winter that lasted for decades (called ‘the Long Night’)
and throughout the novel the characters speak of such things as ‘the year of false spring’ and how
sometimes autumn lasted only a little while before turning into winter.
A difference between a contemporary and a fantasy setting is the presence of magic and the
supernatural in the latter. The presence of magic can be volatile, especially if the author is not careful
to keep it logical and reasonable. In novels where magic is present in abundance, there is the danger
of the setting or the plot becoming unbalanced. Some authors may want to give their protagonists
the best tools to defeat their enemies, and then have to think of something even bigger and worse to
give his characters something to fight in the next novel. Goodkind’s series are a good example of
such, where in each novel the antagonists are trying to achieve the end of the world or the
destruction of all the protagonist holds dear by even bigger means. It is difficult to keep a world
consistent in that way, which makes it more difficult for the translator to keep track of it all as well.
Especially if the story extends over several different novels it is probably best to keep it all with one
translator, for they already have their own notes and thoughts about the setting, which helps to keep
things consistent in the translation. Again however, if there is use of magic in the novel, it has to feel
believable, consistent and logic to the reader and that sense must be retained in translation. As the
author has to make sure his setting is inherently logical and functional, so does the translator with
the translation. A magical fire blast should not ‘destroy’ in one scene and ‘devour’ in the next if it is
the same spell, for destroying and devouring are words with two different outcomes.
Translating occurrences of magic could be as difficult as walking a tight rope, especially if the
magic forms itself around a prophecy. Prophecies are oft-used plot devices in fantastical settings,
often a magical incentive to go one way or the other, and the so-called self-fulfilling prophecy a la
Oedipus is a common occurrence. When a prophecy is mentioned, they always come true later on in
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the story (Bell and Langford, 789). Translating prophecies is extremely difficult, for they are often
layered with hidden meanings, and finding all the right words to convey those hidden meanings
might take hours. Since sometimes the eventual outcome of the prophecy might not even be in the
same novel, the translator might have to rely on guesswork to finish such a fickle occurrence of
magic, only to discover later that his interpretation was wrong. Communication with the author
would help in such a situation, but this is not always possible. Such occurrences in an imagined
setting only help to underwrite the importance of having as complete an understanding of the
setting as possible when translating it.
The last difference between a contemporary and fantasy setting is the amount of knowledge
residing with the readers that the translator has to take into account. With a contemporary setting
the translator can rely on some general knowledge present in the target audience and can use that in
his translation. With a fantasy setting, he cannot rely on this, and also sometimes the author may
decide to go off the beaten path of what’s common fantasy knowledge in an attempt to be more
original than the others. This is for example the case in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, in which
the vampires, commonly accepted as pale humanlike creatures that can only walk at night, drink
human blood to survive and wither and die when faced with the sun, can walk the earth by day,
sustain themselves with animal blood and sparkle in direct sunlight, a controversial change in
vampire methodology. In Jim Butcher’s Fool Moon, the common werewolf is divided into five
different categories: the voluntary werewolf, the involuntary werewolf, the Hexenwolf, the
lycanthrope and the loup-garou. The author uses several foreign terms denoting werewolf and gives
each different traits to recognize them by. None of them are able to infect other people with the
disease through biting them – it’s actually not a disease, according to Butcher, but a magic spell, an
inbred ability or a curse – and only one of them, the loup-garou, is impervious to all weaponry except
silver, and then it has to be inherited silver. The other categories can be killed with normal weaponry.
This clashes with the knowledge and expectations most people have when starting to read such a
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novel, and if the author has managed to believably sell his new take on werewolves, it is up to the
translator to live up to that, also by keeping each category of werewolf distinct and true to its
description throughout the novel. The same is true for all other supernatural beings. When writing
about Elves, Dwarves or Orcs, most people will link them in their minds to the Elves, Dwarves an Orcs
in the forerunner of modern-day fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, but most authors attempt to make
their portrayal of the race quite different from their forerunners. George R.R. Martin called his ‘elves’
the Children of the Forest, made them smaller, rather unwarlike and most of all old spirits of nature,
long dead (or so it is said) but not forgotten. His dwarves are not the fantasy type dwarves but the
real world type dwarves, physically handicapped beings who were born stunted and have to make
their way in a world which is extremely hostile to anyone different from the norm. And Stan Nicholls
with his Orcs: First Blood series portrays a group of orcs not as the senseless murdering beings of
Tolkien but as rounded characters suffering a slave collar, with likes, dislikes, fears, hopes and
likeable character traits, while also retaining the more barbarous character traits like bloodlust and
aggression.
In short, whilst comparing a contemporary setting with a fantasy setting there are many
differences but also quite a few similarities to take into account. Both have characteristics which
might make it more challenging for the translator to find the right tone in which to translate the
novel, and both need to be thoroughly researched and read to create a believable and realistic
setting in translation. When translating a contemporary setting the real world parameters are clear
borders within which a translator must stay, while with a fantasy setting those borders are less
clearly drawn and to help the translation along the translator might cross those uncertain
parameters in an attempt to keep the setting grounded in logic. Without the strong sense of scene
and display of (feigned) realism and functionality, a setting might not be able to support the rest of
the novel (Loponen, 166). Keeping as close to the source text while translating a contemporary or a
fantasy setting is important in both cases, and more so when the novel is of the sub-genre of
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contemporary fantasy, when both characteristics are blended into one to create a world half
grounded in realism and half in feigned realism. To understand the inherent rules of the setting is
important for both reader and translator.
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Chapter 2 – Aspects of Culture
As discussed in chapter one, the setting is considered the basis of a novel. However, the sum makes
the parts, and the setting is more than just the lay of the land and the existence of strange
supernatural creatures and/or magic. The culture or cultures in which the story takes place are an
important element of the setting, as it is that which comprises the rules of interaction between the
characters and the environment. For example, in a culture where no magic is known, the sudden
introduction of it would yield from its characters quite different reactions than from their
counterparts who were raised in a magical environment. The culture in which the protagonist grew
up will have great effect on his actions and decisions, and his interaction with his surroundings is
based upon that background which has shaped him or her. Authors often use cultural differences to
initiate interesting scenes of inter-culture interaction when the protagonist first encounters
something new, a plot device used by fantasy authors such as Raymond E. Feist, Terry Goodkind,
George R.R. Martin and many others. The origin of the cultures described in fantasy novels can be
very different, as will be described in the sub-chapter below. This chapter will also discuss some
specific cultural elements, namely the form of government used in the fantasy world and the cultural
realia that are part of the imagined reality and therefore have no basis in reality for translation.
The four categories of fantasy cultures
It is commonly accepted that the translator has to take the cultural differences between
source and target culture into account while translating a novel, which Nord defines as the culturespecific translation problems that appear because of differences between norms and conventions of
both cultures (Nord, 237). In novels set in a contemporary setting, this is a common occurrence that
can be solved by researching these differences in realia in relation to the problem at hand, and then
choosing one of seven translation strategies as defined by Grit: retention, calque, approximation,
description or definition, core translation, adaption, omission or a combination of two or more
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strategies, based on whether the connotation or denotation is important for the target audience and
what would be the best way to relate that connotation or denotation (Grit, 281-284). This strategy
can also be applied to novels in a fantasy setting, but a fantasy translator might be confronted with
more than just one strange culture in such a novel. Fantasy settings may be based in or on real world
cultures to a bigger or lesser extent, may be a mix of several cultures both old and new, may be a mix
between existing cultures and original elements or may be a completely original world with no
notable connection to any country, historical setting or culture to help the author in translating the
pages. Below I will attempt to definite these categories of fantasy cultures based on personal
observation and reading.
1. The historical setting
The first one is the historical setting, in which the fantasy setting is based on an existing
historical culture with added elements of fantasy, such as magic or elves. The most common
historical culture used is that of medieval Western Europe, with its feudal system of nobility, clergy
and commoners, sometimes with the addition of the middle class if it is a late medieval historical
setting. An example of that is The Kingdom of the Isles in Feist’s Riftwar Cycle - consisting out of
dozens of books, the first being Magician - in which lesser nobility owes fealty to their betters and all
are owed fealty to the King. The clergy (of a polytheistic pantheon) is not as powerful as it was in
medieval Europe but they had influence and power, some churches more than others, and the
middle class and commoners have their place as well. A similar system exists in Martin’s A Song of Ice
and Fire series in the kingdom of Westeros. The advantages of this are that a lot of realia, like titles,
are the same as in real history. Squires remain squires, dukes remain dukes – though in Westeros
there are only kings and queens, princes, lords, knights and squires, with lesser lords having no
specifically lesser title – and the translations therefore already exist in most target languages that
have had a similar historical feudal culture. Small things may be changed - like that knights in
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Westeros are called ‘Ser’ and not ‘Sir’ – but overall, if the translator searches for knowledge about
the historic culture it will be of help in translating the fantasy setting. If the historic culture that a
fantasy culture is based on is somewhat more obscure or unknown, such as Martin’s Dothraki being
based on Mongol horse lords of which most European translators have little knowledge, it may
require more of an effort to get a clear outline of the culture, but then the translator still has some
handholds in historic fact.
In the case of a fantasy culture based on a well known historic culture, the audience will most
likely recognise the source of the culture and deviations from historic fact might be more obvious to
the reader. If that is the intention of the author then it will most likely be apparent from the original
text, though the translator must take care to remain consistent with the changes. With more obscure
cultures, there might be a little more leeway in translation, for most readers simply accept what they
have been given for the sake of willing suspension of disbelief and will not look up the minor details.
2. The eclectic historical setting
The second is a fantasy setting that is a mix of several historical cultures. Such a setting might
make it more confusing for the translator, especially if he is not acquainted with some cultures and
will therefore not recognise it as such, the danger then being that the translator then assumes there
are original fantasy elements and translates accordingly. Often when a fantasy author mixes cultures
he takes two or more that lie relatively close together, but he might also try to merge two completely
different historic cultures to make his own a more complex one. More often than not one fantasy
world has different countries and/or continents that each has their own (mix of) cultures, just like
each country in our world has different cultural denominators. An example of a setting based on
more than one culture is the great Empire of Kesh in the Riftwar Cycle, which is a blend of many
African cultures, reminiscent of what would have happened if the ancient Egyptians would have
conquered nearly the entire continent. The culture of the ruling people of the Empire, the Keshians
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or ‘Trueblood’, is based on Ancient Egypt – down to their gods having animal heads and aspects –
with the Emperor or Empress being both temporal and divine ruler of the land. Their subjects range
from sophisticated Arab-like desert people to barbaric-seeming tribesmen from the more backwater
regions. The odd ones out seem the Shing Lai people, which are more reminiscent of an Asian
culture, though the reference to that culture is too brief and superficial to define its source. Kesh is
an Empire containing many conquered lands, and each new conquest has added new elements to its
general culture, since the cultures influence each other, that makes the whole a little daunting and
confusing, and challenging to translate if the translator is unfamiliar with the many cultures being
introduced in for example Feist’s Prince of the Blood, in which the protagonist travels from the
outskirts of the Empire to its capital and meets many of the different inhabitants on the way. Each
subject of Kesh has values that are strange and values that are common to all subjects, like how the
Trueblood rulers are being treated.
Translating such a mix of cultures might be challenging because the realia might clash, with
several different characters using different words to denote the same thing, or the different way in
which one people for example treat women, and how people from another cultural background
respond to such. A telling scene in Prince of the Blood is one where the Ashuntai, who treat their
women like slaves and cattle, clash with the Brijaners, who are raised in a matriarchal society and
think all women are holy. These blatant differences between cultures can cause friction between
characters and is therefore a common plot device. Keeping the many cultures straight could be a
challenge, especially if there might a lack of consistency or logic within the novel itself, with the extra
work of investigating the more unknown historical cultures the author uses in his setting. If the
author himself has not properly researched the cultures he is basing his fantasy setting on then
inconsistencies within the novel or deviation from (historic) fact might occur as well.
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3. The part historical, part original setting.
The third category is fantasy settings that part existing historic culture(s), part original
setting, and one of the most common occurrences of a fantasy setting. Often the author borrows
from known cultures and embellishes upon it through their own imagination to create something
relatively new. In such a novel, the translator has to investigate both the set parameters from the
known culture and the new, unknown parameters from the original content. Most often the author
has already worked at blending both together into a believable setting, and then all the translator
has to do is retain that status quo. This seems easy, but might be more of a challenge if the existing
culture is unknown to the translator, so that he might not be able to successfully differentiate
between what is borrowed and what is original.
A example for this would be the world Kelewan in Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts’s
Empire Trilogy. The main culture in these novels is that of the Tsurani and the empire of Tsuranuanni.
The Tsurani culture is Asian in origin, based mainly on feudal Japan and in lesser extent on old Korean
cultural aspects. Tsuranuanni is ruled by the Emperor, who like in feudal Japan is more of a
ceremonial and religious figurehead than an actual ruler. The land is ruled by the High Council, the
congregation of all Ruling Lords and Ladies (akin to a Japanese daimyo) that each rules their own
estate like it is a small kingdom. The Ruling Families quarrel, through politics and through warfare,
and the military aspects of the empire are under the care of the Warlord (akin to the Japanese
shogun), the semi-democratically chosen leader of the High Council. Their culture is based on the
concept of honour as it was in feudal Japan, where following the Way of the Warrior (Bushido),
fighting prowess and prowess in advancement of one’s house can gain a Family or a person honour,
and shame and defeat can lose them honour, up to the point where honour might be regained
through ritual suicide, the ritual of seppuku or hari-kiri in feudal Japan. They also believe in the
Buddhist way of Samsara, or the cycle of suffering and rebirth in which one must lead an exemplary
life according to the station – layer of the hierarchy – they were born in, in order to attain a higher
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station in the next life and finally achieve Nirvana. The possibility of falling in station – for example
through loss of honour in their previous life – is also present and feared by the characters. None of
the terms we know from feudal Japan are explicitly named in the novels, having been anglicised or
substituted with a new, imagined term. but it is very clear where the basics of Tsurani culture lie.
There are several original additions however. One is the natami, the family stone which is
considered the mainstay of a house and family. The natami is the most important reliquary to a ruling
house, for their honour and existence is bound within it. It is also seen as the place to which the
spirits of the ancestors return upon their death, to watch over their house. If a natami was taken
from the ruling family, their line and power ceased to exist even if many family members were still
living, for without the natami there could be no house, and any remaining family members would
most likely either die trying to get it back or commit ritual suicide in shame. Such a relic did not exist
in the feudal Japanese culture, and has most likely been added by the author as a physical
representation of a house’s honour, life and line. However, for one unfamiliar with Japanese culture
it might not be entirely clear that the natami is an original addition to the culture. While in this case it
has little consequence for translating the novel, it might not always be so. The second original aspect
is that the Tsurani believe in a polytheistic pantheon which might directly intercede with the world of
mortals if they so desired. The magic of the gods could have effect on Tsurani life. This in itself should
cause no translation problems, as it is a clear enough deviation from the existing culture to prevent
any confusion on the matter. The third addition is the magicians called the Great Ones. They are
viewed as people outside the Law and the defenders of Tsurani culture and tradition, capable of
doing whatever it takes to make sure the stability and safety of the Empire is upheld. They are in that
way a rogue group that can act in unexpected ways, and the position they take in Tsurani culture is
therefore unique. They are feared and hated, and properly translating the way the rest of the Tsurani
view and treat them might be a challenging task in some cases.
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There is usually a balance between the existing and original cultural elements as merged by
the author, and it is something the translator must understand and be aware of while translating
such a novel. Awkwardly translating certain realia or nomenclatures, such as the honorific “Great
One” for the magicians in Tsuranuanni, which contains several layers of meaning, might lessen the
impact of the original additions therefore could fail to convey the importance of such things to the
reader, which could lead to a lesser experience of the intricacies of the novel. Especially in such a
politically-oriented series as the Empire Trilogy, where every action and spoken word is only part of a
very intricate political web of intrigue, misunderstandings in translation could seriously affect the
way the reader perceives the story.
4. The original setting
The fourth category is that of a nearly completely original setting and/or culture. While a
completely original setting with no basis in any historical fact is something that has yet to occur in a
fantasy novel, an original culture as part of the setting, while rare, has been written. This means that
the translator is facing unknown parameters when translating realia in this culture. Especially if the
original culture is introduced early in a series of novels in the same setting, these unknown
parameters can cause pitfalls when translating the sequels. Seemingly unimportant cultural
references could prove to be very important ones later on, and since the translator has no insight in
what the author intends, mistakes could be made in translating them. When faced with unfamiliar
cultural realia, the only available source to check them against is the author of the novel, and it is not
always possible to confer with the author on such things. Caution is therefore necessary in
translating the unknown, keeping as close to the original meaning as possible, and even then the
perceived meaning of the translator might differ of that of the author, or perhaps miss a second layer
that is to become important later.
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An example of original cultures in which such translational mishaps may occur is the Cho-ja in
Feist and Wurts’s Empire Trilogy. The Cho-ja are not humans or humanoids but insects, bugs
reminiscent of ants, living in hives that resemble giant ant hills. Their biological details are like ants,
with a queen overseeing the affairs of the hive, breeding whichever type of Cho-ja is needed, but
they are not animals but sentient beings, and their cultural norms and values are entirely different
from their human counterparts, a fact which becomes increasingly important throughout the trilogy.
Only the Queen, the officers of the soldiers and select workers are truly sentient, and the Queen is
the one person who controls what happens in the hive. The novelty of the race, however, is that they
seem devoid of human concepts like honour or shame. As the protagonist of the trilogy, Mara of the
Acoma, learns early on, the Cho-ja queens care little for such things and are like a race of merchants;
they barter for the lives of their underlings in the hive as much as they would barter for goods. This
seems strange, until in the final part of the trilogy it is revealed that most of their culture is being
repressed by the Tsurani through ancient treaties, and that outside the borders of the Empire they
express much more individuality, for example by showing a wide variety of colours on their carapaces
as opposed to the Empire Cho-ja, which are all black. This contrast is a marked one, and mishaps in
translating the Cho-ja’s cultural oddities in the first two instalments might be cause difficulties for the
translator in the last instalment. Most of those oddities in the Cho-ja culture are born out of
necessity to survive in – in their eyes – hostile country and are therefore quite strange, especially
opposed to the cultural norms and values displayed by the free Cho-ja or those of the Tsurani. If this
concept loses in translation, then the impact of the third novel loses as well.
Another strange and original culture in fantasy novels is that of the Drow in R.A. Salvatore’s
Forgotten Realms novels. The Drow are a race of dark elves, black of skin and white-haired, who have
a matriarchal society that is only distantly reminiscent of the Greek Amazons. They are also a society
that is inherently evil, following a dark spider goddess whose goal it is to enslave the world in
darkness and using her priestesses – the leaders of the Drow – to make that come to pass. The leader
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of a Drow clan is called the Matron, and her word is law; she is also a High Priestess of Lloth, their
goddess. Only women may be priestesses of Lloth, and only men may practice magic. Their rigid
hierarchy, with human slaves on the bottom of the pyramid, is not such a strange concept, but the
way the author has built a culture around it is. Such a strong, inherently evil matriarchal culture has
never existed in our world, and though some elements may be borrowed from or reminiscent of
existing cultures, the end result can be called original.
Each category comes with its own set of challenges for the translator to deal with. Especially if the
used (historical) cultures are unknown to the translator, translating the realia correctly might require
more effort on the part of the translator, to be able to transfer all layers of meaning to the target
language. And often heard peeve of fantasy readers about translations is that translators do not
seem to take the extra trouble to investigate the origins of a fantasy culture or take notes on how the
realia were translated, resulting in the same thing being translated in two different ways. While this
lack of thorough investigation is not only practiced by fantasy translators, it may be especially jarring
if the mistranslations jar the credibility of a culture, especially if it happens in the original additions.
Uncertainty about meaning in an existing culture can be looked up by the reader if so inclined, but
with an original setting this is not the case, leaving the reader to guess at what might be an
important aspect of life in that setting.
Government in fantasy settings
Cultural norms, values, habits, customs and history are not the only things which help
differentiate between different fantasy settings. The form of government used by the author is also
quite telling to what sort of story he is trying to tell. The most common form of government used in
fantasy settings is the monarchy, with kings, queens and noblemen either vying for each other’s
powers or kingdoms or working together to face a common enemy; sometimes both. A monarchy is
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simple in form and easiest to associate with a fantasy setting, especially if it is set in a western
European medieval background. Monarchies, princes and princesses are most associated with the
past and with fairytales, and are therefore often deemed a fitting form of government in any form of
fantasy setting. A constitutional or elective monarchy on the other hand is less common; an absolute
and hereditary monarchy is the mainly used form, most likely because politics – except court intrigue
– are not often part of the main plotlines in fantasy novels and it is therefore easier to create as few
political structures as possible so that one will not have to take such things into account while writing
towards a great plot twist. Most fantasy novels, if it has multiple cultures and countries in its setting,
have at least one country in which absolute monarchy is the form of government.
The other popular choice for fantasy authors is fascism, often with the accompanying plot of
the evil dictator that has to be defeated in order to win freedom for all the land. In most fantasy
settings implementing a fascist government, the country and its leader or military leaders – in which
case it is a military dictatorship - are painstakingly described as the antagonist, trying to conquer and
rule over the free people or the happy kingdom, and the protagonist of the story is exactly the one to
put a stop to the antagonist’s plans. Whereas a dictator is not inherently evil, since the word simply
implies being an absolute sovereign without a hereditary title, modern history has only known
dictators who eventually became mass-murderers and that connotation with the word and the form
of government has resonated in the fantasy genre.
The third most popular form of government is fantasy setting is that of a theocracy. While
uncommon in our own world, in a fantasy world with magic and endless possibilities concerning gods
it offers many possibilities to play with as an author. In a fantasy world, a god or gods can take an
active interest in the world, and their cult or religious order could have more power to take control
of the land with more than just physical power. A theocracy is a way of experimenting with religion,
or even satirizing or demonizing modern religion like in Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, in which the
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Christian Church on a parallel earth is controlling most aspects of life in such a way that causes one of
its underlings to attempt to find a way to destroy all religion by killing God.
Often a fantasy setting does not have just one form of government. A prime example of
different lands with different governmental institutions is the Sword of Truth series by Terry
Goodkind. The story starts in the Westland, a republic with the leader being chosen by popular vote.
The protagonists then travel towards the Midlands, which is actually many little kingdoms together
of which delegates from each country form a high council of the Midlands with a ceremonial
monarch at its head, making it akin to a constitutional monarchy. The Midlands are threatened by
D’Hara, an autocratic state with Lord Rahl at its head; though the title of Lord Rahl is hereditary, it is
not given to the firstborn son but to the only son that shows magical abilities, since Lord Rahl has to
be someone with the ‘Gift’, the ability to do magic. Together these lands comprise the New World. In
the meantime, in the Old World, a communist state has evolved under the leadership of someone
who calls himself Emperor Jagang but who preaches the communist belief of equal opportunity for
all. If it is the case that more forms of government are present in the same fantasy setting, most
often it means that they are at some point warring with each other to gain superiority over the other.
It seems strange that even though monarchies, feudal systems and theocracies seem in abundance in
fantasy novels, the modern concepts of democracy are rarely used.
Setting a story against a fantasy background is a way for authors to experiment with concepts
which are not readily available in the real world. Those that prefer to be grounded in reality will write
contemporary fantasy, borrowing existing modern cultures and giving it an added layer of the
supernatural. A fantasy author often experiments with ideas about social, cultural, governmental or
economical structures, with the purpose of being satirical, informative, philosophical or parodical,
and might have more possibilities of experimentation in a world of feigned realism where he is not
hampered by fact (Nikolajeva, 139). A fantasy novel could be simply entertaining or highly critical of
certain social or political structures. If the purpose is to be critical, the translator has the task to
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thoroughly research and understand the choice of government and/or culture of the author, in order
to translate the intent as well as the literal text.
Translating fantasy names and (ir)realia
In translation studies, the cultural specific terms, names, locations and language use are
called realia, and form an integral part of many discussions on translations, for it is realia that often
cause translation problems to occur when no target-culture equivalent can be found. Realia can also
be found in imagined settings and cultures, though in that case many of them are imagined
themselves, and finding a target-culture equivalent, if necessary, for such created realia would be
considered a difficult undertaking. A fantasy setting is (partly) constructed out of these fictional
realia, created by the author to determine the cultural, geographical and historical settings of the
fantasy world, in order to make it an inherently logical structure (Loponen, 167). Loponen, in his
article called “Translating Irrealia”, suggests that these fictional realia be called irrealia, to denote the
fictional aspect of these cultural specific terms.
The translation of (ir)realia and especially personal names has always been a point of
discussion in translation studies. Opinions on the matter vary from leaving names as they are to
altering them slightly to make them sound better in the target language (neutralising) to changing
them completely to fit the target language (naturalising). In his article titled “Translation of Names in
Children’s Fantasy Literature”, Lincoln Fernandes quotes Tymoczko:
“There is a widespread disposition that names should be transposed unchanged in textual
writings (…). Indeed, a naïve or inexperienced translator (…) may look forward to the proper
names in a text as islands of repose – unproblematic bits to be passed intact without effort
into the new linguistic texture being created – translated in the sense of carried across the
language gap without alteration, in the sense that a saint’s relics are translated from one
resting place to another” (Tymoczko via Fernandes 44).
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With this quote Tymoczko and with him Fernandes implies that occurrences of proper names – for
characters, for places, for special objects – cannot simply be left alone in a text, transferring them
from source to target text without trouble. Indeed, many proper names have been chosen with
specific intentions by the author, and the translator ought to take this into consideration with every
proper name he encounters. Whereas in a modern setting, leaving a name in the original form might
add to the exotic nature of the setting, in fantasy it is quite possible that names carry very specific
meanings. The most often quoted example is of course Harry Potter, in which nearly all characters
have been named with their personalities or backgrounds in mind. The Harry Potter books are aimed
at children and young adults, but the same can be said for works of fantasy meant for adults. Often
you cannot get away with letting the name stand in its original form since then the meaning would
be lost on the reader of the translation. A good example of this is found in Robin Hobb’s Farseer
Trilogy. The nobles of the land called the Six Duchies have the custom to name their children after
virtues or traits, in hopes of them emulating that which they were named after in later life, and with
a little help from magic, that hope may often be borne out. There’s King Shrewd, Prince Chivalry,
Prince Verity, Prince Regal, Lady Patience and Queen Desire. If we look at those names from a
translator’s point of view, some of them are fairly straightforward to translate to Dutch, but decisions
have to be made; should you translate just a few or translate them all? Keep the names in the target
text similar to the source text or translate the meaning instead of the exact word? Not translating
these names would mean the underlying thought for them could be lost on the reader of the
translation, who might not realise the names are not fantastical-sounding but English words. Some
translators might worry that the translations of these names might look really odd in their own
language, since things like ‘Geduld’ and ‘Begeerte’ are not generally considered names, but neither
are such names as ‘Shrewd’ or ‘Desire’ in the source language. The Dutch translators, Erica Feberwee
and Peter Cuijpers, seemed to have erred on the side of caution; they translated ‘Chivalry’ to
‘Chevalric’ and ‘Verity’ to ‘Veritas’, but kept ‘Patience’ as it is, trusting people would recognize it as
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an English or even French word, and made ‘Desire’ into ‘Desirée’, which is a common enough name
to not recognise the meaning behind it, especially since for this character ‘desire’ does not just mean
she is to be desired, but also that she desires much, has ambition. Especially that second meaning is
lost in the chosen translation. By only translating half of the noble names to something of similar
meaning in the target language, the underlying cultural habit of naming noble children after virtues is
lost on the reader of the translation, since in translation it does not seem to happen often enough to
be of significance in the setting’s culture while it actually is.
Character names are not the only names to which this applies however. Place names,
objects, titles, races, all of these irrealia may have important meaning in a fantasy novel, or a
‘semantic load’ as Fernandes calls it. He states that “names are viewed as mono-referential – they
refer to a single entity – but not as mono-functional, since they may function as carriers, for instance,
of semantic, semiotic, and/or sound symbolic meanings in literary works” (Fernandes, 45). This
basically means that names in literature, especially fantasy literature, more often than not have more
meaning than just the one on the surface. He goes on to describe three different ways in which a
name can be formed to relay a deeper meaning (Fernandes, 46-48). It can have a semantic meaning,
where the name itself is used to sum up someone’s personality, like in Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy or
Artemis Fowl (“foul”) in Eoin Colfer’s series of the same name. It can have a semiotic meaning,
generating signs of ancient or recent historical associations, such as gender denotation, class,
intertextuality and other things. Lastly it can have sound symbolic meanings, like the name being an
onomatopoeia or a phonestheme, which “is a sound, sound cluster, or sound type that is directly
associated with a meaning” (Fernandes, 47). In translating all of these, the translator needs to take
the intent of the author in creating such names into account and where possible create an equivalent
name in the target language. This poses quite a challenge, for finding a word with for example a
similar semantic meaning or a similar phonestheme in the target language might prove very difficult,
as is shown in the Dutch translations of the virtue names in Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy. If the name is
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specific to the fantasy culture as described by the author it may even be more difficult, since more
often than not the translator lacks all in the information of said culture to properly divine the
intended meaning or reference. Therefore names are often not “islands of repose” but difficult
hurdles that require some effort on the part of the translator to properly communicate into the
target language.
In short, while translating a fantasy setting, the translator must take the cultural differences
between source culture and target culture but also between book culture and target culture into
account, lest he makes the mistake of transferring cultural reference from the imagined culture into
a target culture equivalent. While translating a fantasy novel the translator has to decide in which of
the four categories the novel belongs and make sure they understand which existing cultures and
forms of government the author has used, to be able to search for answers when posed with a
difficult translation problem. Names can often pose a problem in a novel, but especially so in a
fantasy novel since then the names might have special significance in the fantasy culture in a way
that might not be easily recognised by the translator. Translating an unknown culture may be
difficult, but translating a culture that mostly exists in the author’s mind may be much more of a
challenge.
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Chapter 3 – Translating Contemporary Fantasy
When translating a novel, each literary genre often comes with its own set of translation
specifics and challenges. In murder mysteries it is important to retain the feeling of suspense the
author is trying to impress on the reader about who did it, in romance novels the reader has to feel
as the protagonists feel when they share their love, in a thriller the feeling of not knowing what
happens next is often essential to the scene and to translate that feeling may be very difficult and in
poetry every rhythm, rhyme and other poetical structures could be mind-bending for the translator.
While some of these specifics are unique to that particular genre, they may all appear in the fantasy
genre, for as mentioned before, a novel falls under the fantasy genre because of its setting and not
its plot. Fantasy is often associated with stories of epic heroes struggling with evil sorcerers or
demons, the epic fantasy, but that is just one of the types of fantasy novels, though it is probably the
best known type. There are fantasy detectives, romance novels, thrillers, bildungsromans and even
fantasy poems, which all combine the specifics of one genre with the specifics of the fantasy genre.
Some of these general translation specifics, like the cultural differences and translating names and
(ir)realia, have been discussed in the previous chapter. That the translator would have to pay special
attention to names and imagined cultures, norms and values were part of the expected translation
specifics for adult fantasy. It is important for any translator to make careful note of all names and
realia in translation, especially if the novel is the first book in a series. Casually mentioned characters
in the first novel might become important to the plot in the second or third novel, and if that
character suddenly has a different name, someone will notice. If each part of the series is translated
by a different person, it could make consistency a bit more problematic. This is of course true for all
translations of fiction but could cause a little more difficulty in fantasy novels since names and realia
may be strange and unknown, set against the translator’s frame of reference. There is one sub-genre
of fantasy however in which the fantasy elements may be an even more jarring aspect of the setting,
and that is the sub-genre of contemporary fantasy.
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Contemporary fantasy is a relatively new genre in the literary world, and is in short the
addition of fantastical or supernatural elements (as described in chapter 1) to a contemporary or
modern setting. Most often this setting is indeed contemporary, but historical or futuristic settings
are also amongst the possibilities. They differ from ‘regular’ fantasy in that they are set on the planet
earth, in factual historic times. With historical settings, the novels might be referred to as low
fantasy, depending on the time in which the novels take place as well as the amount and variety of
fantastical and supernatural elements mentioned. For example, books with fantastical elements in
medieval time, like the Avalon-series of Marion Zimmer Bradley about King Arthur and his court,
would most likely be dubbed low fantasy, whereas the Temeraire-books by Naomi Novik, about
dragons in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, would fall under the contemporary fantasy header.
Contemporary fantasy is a sub genre of the fantasy genre, though with its relative rise in
popularity in the last twenty to thirty years and the many new novels published that fall into this type
of setting, it is not a small part of the genre. The most popular aspect of contemporary fantasy is
urban fantasy, where next to the primary prerequisites to define a novel as contemporary fantasy, it
must also be set in an urban environment, taking place in an around a single city (Clute, “Urban
Fantasy”, 975). More often than not, the fantastical and supernatural elements are hiding
themselves from the common populace in contemporary fantasy, to keep from too many people
finding out they exist. It is one of the tropes of contemporary fantasy (Clute and Kaveney, 225).
The primary conditions to decide whether a novel is contemporary fantasy are as follows:
The tale has to be grounded in an existing setting - i.e. earth as we know or knew it - and needs to
have sufficient fantastical and/or supernatural elements intertwined with that world to mark it as
different from the real world that we actually live in (Clute and Kaveney, 225). For example, a novel
in which there is mention of unproven paranormal activity (houses being ‘haunted’) would not be
qualified as contemporary fantasy, but a novel where the protagonist has tangible interaction with
ghosts, and the ghosts with their surroundings, would be. Granted, it is a very fine line between
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novels where those characters with overactive imaginations meet those who actually do live in a
fantastical rendition of our world where ghosts simply exist, whether there’s someone to see them
or not. The difference is that in contemporary fantasy, the supernatural prominently features in such
a way that there can be no doubt of their existence (Clute and Kaveney, 225). Most novels of the
contemporary fantasy category are more clearly recognised as such, having their characters being or
dealing with supernatural creatures such as vampires or werewolves. Contemporary fantasy should
not be confused with horror fiction, either. In horror fiction, the supernatural elements are mostly
there to scare and frighten and might not even be real, whereas in contemporary fantasy those
elements are used to inspire awe and wonder in the protagonist and reader and are real in that
setting (Clute and Kaveney, 225).
As mentioned, there has been a great rise in popularity of contemporary fantasy. Throughout
history there have been many publications that bordered the fantastical, though the eclectic genre
that we now call fantasy is a “twentieth-century phenomenon” (Nikolajeva, 140). In the last twenty
years there has been a notable outbreak of contemporary fantasy authors, the most famous of which
have seen their books being adapted for the big screen or a TV series. Perhaps the most known
example of a recently popular contemporary fantasy series are the Harry Potter books by J.K.
Rowling. Set in the nineties, it tells the story of a young boy who discovers he’s actually a wizard and
grows up learning that he has to defeat the darkest wizard of all time. It is a bildungsroman in a
contemporary fantasy setting which, though mostly occurring in a fictional place is set in modern
England. A second popular example are the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, about a group of
vampires who don’t drink human blood, werewolves who are their natural enemy and the girl who is
caught between the two groups. They are but two well-known examples of contemporary fantasy,
though mostly it is not a mainstream genre and only read by a specific group of readers.
Like ‘normal’ fantasy, contemporary fantasy is written mainly for (young) adults. The subjects
of the book are gritty, there isn’t always a happy ending, and the characters are more layered and
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darker than in most novels which people define as fantasy stories. Most contemporary fantasy
stories are set in a more dystopian version of our own world, where the atmosphere is just a little
darker, the government just a little more corrupt, and the violence just a little more violent. This
does not mean it is all horrific, it is simply meant for a more adult audience, to challenge their
perception of the world (Nikolajeva, 140). Some of the most notable examples of the darker type of
contemporary fantasy are the novels of the Vampire: The Requiem series, where the vampires are in
control of everything behind the scenes, and in the Dresden Files, where a wizard detective comes
across the most gruesome supernatural entities and occurrences one can imagine.
Within the genre of contemporary fantasy there are quite a few different characteristics that
may or may not fall under the fantasy header, and many novels don’t fall into only one category, as is
usual with works of fiction. Some works of contemporary fantasy stay firmly grounded in our own
world and universe while others, such as the His Dark Materials-trilogy by Philip Pullman or The War
of Flowers by Tad Williams, wander across many parallel universes, including our own, resulting in a
strange mix of normal-typed and contemporary fantasy, for not every universe is like our own. Many
authors use every type of old mythology and legends to fuel their stories (Nikolajeva, 139), from the
usual suspects of vampires and werewolves to the ancient gods, such as in Neil Gaiman’s American
Gods, where the old Scandinavian god Odin tries to get back into power once more and to achieve
that has to fight his way through the world’s new gods, such as ‘Media’ and ‘Technology’, or in
Anansi Boys, which describes what happens if an old god (Anansi the spider, an African trickster god)
dies and his sons have to take over.
Translating contemporary fantasy is different from translating fantasy in the way that the
translator has to consolidate both the existing (contemporary) culture and the imagined culture living
side by side into the target language. The added challenge with translating contemporary fantasy
novels is that the translator will have to make sure that every fantastic and supernatural element is
translated in such a way that it consolidates with the real world and stays believable within it. The
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small liberties a translator might have while translating normal fantasy, where he is not bound by the
margins of the real world are not available to translator of contemporary fantasy, since the novel is
set in the real world and thus provides its margins. The supernatural elements might stretch those
margins a bit, but rarely breaks them. Some contemporary fantasy novels, like Storm Front and Fool
Moon by Jim Butcher and A Hunger like Fire by Greg Stolze, add established supernatural elements to
the setting like vampires, warlocks and werewolves, and build a story around the dynamics between
the mundane and the supernatural. Some, like American Gods by Neil Gaiman and Good Omens by
Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, are written under the assumption that people like gods, angels and
demons are real and influence the world of man, and take that as their starting point for story
dynamics. Through translating these five books it is attempted to gain some insight into the task of
translating contemporary fantasy, of merging the known and the unknown together into a believable
story in the target language. By using examples of these five excerpts things like the influence of
setting, culture (including the clash between ‘normal’ and ‘paranormal’ culture), genre-specific
irrealia and working with the willing suspension of disbelief of readers are discussed, in hopes of
shedding some light on the translation mechanics behind them.
Greg Stolze - A Hunger Like Fire
The first excerpt is A Hunger Like Fire by Greg Stolze, published in 2004. It is the first
instalment of a trilogy based on the tabletop roleplaying game Vampire: the Requiem, in which the
players create a vampire character and play out adventures constructed by the game leader, the
storyteller. The setting is a darker version of our own modern world where vampires, werewolves
and Fae exist, and especially the vampires have great influence on the world through manipulating
the people in it, especially people in the government, police force, army, hospitals; any place whose
existence has influence on the human race. Most big cities have shadow courts of vampires who hold
the ropes behind the scenes, coming together in the so-called Elysium to discuss the business of the
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realm, i.e. the city they rule. The court is presided over by a Prince, a title irrespective of gender, who
is advised in matters of rule by his council of primogen, often elder vampires and leaders of the
various clans and covenants. It is a very political structure, and it is therefore politics which is usually
the driving force of many confrontations and character interactions. The hierarchy in the vampire is
culture is one of both age and lineage; older vampires are more respected, and vampires from some
clans are of better renown than vampires of others. For example, the vampires belonging to the clan
called Ventrue are usually of higher standing, being the clan who covets power and money the most,
whereas those from the clan called Nosferatu is usually of the lowest standing, since their blood
lineage carries an extra curse that deforms their vampiric bodies into something repulsive, with
deformities, sores, rashes and pointy teeth, making them seem less human. These vampires are like
the vampires we know from books like Dracula; creatures of the night, drinkers of human blood,
more powerful than humans, though they cannot change into bats. Some can control bats, though;
each clan has clan-specific ‘powers’ with they can for example become stronger, run faster, alter
themselves, or influence the minds of others. The interaction of the vampire society with real society
is partly what these novels are about, the ways which both influence each other.
The setting of the novel is the American city of Chicago. The city is as it would be in our
world, but there is a shadow society of vampires who roam the night, with its own hierarchy to keep
the vampire populace under control. The form of government can be best termed as despotism, the
Prince of a realm having absolute final authority in all things, though counselled by his council of
primogen who also rule (part of) the populace. The Prince’s position is a precarious one, and he only
rules as long as he has the majority of the people in power behind him, otherwise he will most likely
be disposed of in rebellion. This means the position requires great political influence to maintain; a
vampire does not become Prince if he does not have enough (political) strength to back him up. In a
sense it is also therefore in a sense a meritocracy; for the ambitious, there are only two outcomes,
victory and failure. Those who come out on top have walked over many bodies to get there, and
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those on the losing side often lose, at the very least, a lot of prestige or, at the most, their (un)lives.
The setting has its own set of irrealia specific to the vampire culture, such as Childe, Sire, Prince,
Kindred and Embrace, which will each be discussed below.
The following excerpt is a scene setting for the vampire society of Chicago, the hierarchy and
the court, the description of an Elysium through the eyes of a young vampire who also happens to be
the 'Childe’ of – meaning she was bitten and created by – the Prince of Chicago, a position that earns
her less favour than one would expect for the offspring of the current ruler. The weak are quick to be
eliminated, and showing weakness is a sure way to become the next on everyone’s hit list. The
protagonist, Persephone, was the Prince’s sign of weakness; creating - ‘siring’ – offspring is a
carefully regulated activity, for the court is to remain hidden to human eyes and it would therefore
not do to have an overly abundant group of vampires in the city. Though the Prince has enough
power to get away with such an indiscretion, it has earned him some new enemies and a lessening of
respect and has made Persephone a target for those who would use her to strike at the Prince. The
moment his power base seems to crumble, the vultures will be on him. This excerpt shows that very
clearly. Maxwell, the Prince, uses symbols of power – being preceded by his steward, wearing a
naked sword, sitting on a throne – to emphasize his position, while also showing a genial face to his
subjects to make them like him. Some of his circle of advisors, like Solomon Birch, are clearly not
impressed, and show it. The scene ends with a video of another rogue offspring called Bruce causing
trouble for the vampire community, being ignorant of what he has become. It will later turn out that
he was the indiscretion of the Nosferatu leader called Scratch, who calls out for his death before his
mistake can be unearthed and he be punished for it. The problems that were unearthed during the
translation of this excerpt are listed in the footnotes.
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Honger als vuur1
Greg Stolze
Bella leunt een beetje naar achteren en trekt2 verdedigend haar kin op. Ze maakt zich klaar
om haar positie te verdedigen als de klank van een gong door de ruimte weerkaatst.
Prins Maxwell is aangekomen.
“Ga staan!”
Dat is natuurlijk niet Maxwell’s stem, het is een man genaamd Garret McLean3 en hij valt
1
The first problem a translator usually comes across while translating any form of fiction is the title
of the novel. Often the title alludes either to the protagonist or the main storyline of the novel,
whether overtly or subtly. Therefore the title often can only be translated last, when the translator
has fully read and translated the novel and has a full understanding of the intricacies of the story. In
this particular case, the title A Hunger like Fire refers to the hunger for blood the vampires in the
novel feel, and how it affects their actions; the hunger burns and can make them lose control, such
as fire is uncontrollable. A second detail is that vampires have an inbred mortal fear for fire, as it is
one of the few things that can effectively destroy them. As my options I came up with Vurig
Verlangen, Vurige Honger, Hete Honger and Heet Verlangen, but all the titles made it sounds like a
cheap romance novel. I finally settled for Honger als vuur, close to the original title but omitting the
article.
2
The original phrase is “raises her nose defensively” and my first instinct was to translate it as ‘haalt
haar neus verdedigend op.’ However, in Dutch the phrase ‘je neus ophalen’ has both the connotation
of having the sniffles as well as disdain, which is the right connotation in this context. There is also
the problem of the sentence becoming a little awkward, since the adjective ‘defensively’, while odd
in the original text, does not really seem to work in the target language in combination with raising
one’s nose. To make it more logical I substituted ‘chin’ for ‘nose’, which still retains the connotation
of disdain but removes the awkward combination of ‘neus optrekken’ with ‘verdedigend’ .
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onmogelijk te negeren. Het is alsof zijn stem door ons heen siddert, zoals zijn hamer de gong
beroerde. De jongere vampiers springen op als schildwachten die zijn betrapt op luieren. De
ouderen, Solomon Birch in het bijzonder, gaan met meer ernst staan, met een air van Ik hoef niet te
staan, ik kies ervoor.
Garret schrijdt naar binnen, statig en serieus, terwijl hij een simpele mahonie kist van
ongeveer anderhalve meter lang, vijftien centimeter hoog en vijftien breed hooghoudt.4 Hij stevent
geleidelijk af op de lege stoel op de bodem van het amfitheater. Deze is groot, barok en oud. Hij is
ongeveer halverwege als Maxwell achter hem binnenkomt.
De Prins van Chicago is niet echt lang – 1. 75 meter, misschien 1.80. Ongeveer mijn lengte.
Hoewel, als hij echt rond achttienhonderd is geboren dan moet hij in zijn tijd een reus zijn geweest.
Hij is gedrongen, gekleed in een conservatieve Phat Farm sweater, zo eentje die Bill Clinton draagt.
Hij heeft hoge, prominente jukbeenderen en een kalme, vriendelijke verschijning. Vanavond is hij
3
I have chosen not to translate any of the names to Dutch, since this is a novel for adults set in
Chicago, and the readers would expect English names and would also most likely understand them
enough to keep any kind of allusion to a person’s character or background through the name intact.
4
This sentence was difficult to translate because of the present continuous in the source text, which
allows the text to consist out of one sentence with a comma. This caused difficulties in Dutch,
because the present continuous does not exist in the target language. One of the solutions would be
to use the Dutch form of the present participle (the “onvoltooid/tegenwoordig deelwoord”) which
comes closest to the present continuous, but it is not often used by the native speakers of Dutch and
would therefore come across as forced. I tried hacking the sentence in two (Garrett schrijdt statig en
serieus naar binnen. Hij houdt ….) but then the deliberate pauses made by the author are lost, whose
intent it was to accentuate Garrett’s demeanor to underline the gravitas of the situation. Finally I
came to as it is now, adding ‘terwijl’ to make the second part of the sentence connect to the first.
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opa die zich klaarmaakt om de kalkoen aan te snijden op Thanksgiving.
Mijn ‘schepper’. 5
Tegen de tijd dat hij de stoel bereikt, heeft McLean de kist geopend en er (met gepaste
zwierigheid) een glimmend metalen zwaard uitgehaald. Maxwell gaat op de troon zitten en McLean
overhandigt hem het wapen. Maxwell haalt het uit de schede en legt het naakte staal over zijn
knieën, en het is moeilijk om zijn blik te duiden terwijl hij dit doet. Deze is meerduidig, subtiel. Je
kunt er de complete overgave aan de zaak die al dit machtsvertoon symboliseert in lezen. Je kunt
hem lezen als uitgestreken ironie, een dubbel snijdend gelaat dat deze pretentieuze formaliteiten
bespot door ze te perfectioneren. Je kunt er beheerste tirannie in lezen, een beteugelde minachting
voor de ceremonie die zegt, ‘ik heb dit belachelijke staafje metaal niet nodig om mijn wil op te
leggen.’6
5
The source word for this is ‘sire’, which in English has the connotation of both forefather and
creator. There is no one-on-one Dutch equivalent for this word, which made finding a good Dutch
translation difficult. The word ‘sire’ exists in Dutch, but there it is only used as a ways of addressing
the king. I wrote down various options for translation, but none were the perfect word I was looking
for. There was the simple “Vader”, with a capital V, but the word ‘vader’ in Dutch has the
connotation of love and warmth, a protector, which in vampire society was not often the case. With
‘Voogd’ it lacked the connotation of creator. ‘Ouder’ was a possibility, being more distant a word
than ‘father’, but still had that family feeling that didn’t fit the scene of the novel. I finally settled on
‘schepper’, chosing to bypass the connotation of forefather in favour of that of creator.
6
This paragraph was rather difficult to translate because of all the commas and pauses, which the
author uses to lend weight to his description of the Prince of Chicago, the leader of the coven of
vampires in that city. It didn’t already flow naturally in the source text, which made it doubly difficult
to achieve some form of natural structure in the target language without breaking up the author’s
intended effect in describing this character. Stolze uses quite a lot of commas in his writing, which
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Zijn uitdrukking verandert en voor even zou ik zweren dat hij naar me knipoogde. Daarna zie
ik de bewegingen, de veranderingen van houding in de gallerij en ik realiseer me precies hoeveel van
ons hetzelfde dachten.
Degenen vooraan, de ouderen – Solomon, Scratch, Rowen – zij zijn niet overtuigd. Zij in de
middelste rijen, zoals Bella, schudden het na een paar seconden van zich af. Maar de jongeren, de
nieuwelingen, zij onder ons die het verste weg staan, bij de gratis drank… de meesten van ons vallen
ervoor.
Ik kijk naar de ongebondenen7. Raphael kijkt perplex, Ambrose fronst. Ik kan niet zien of ze
erin zijn getrapt of niet.
“Wij zijn de Verdoemden,” begint Maxwell, “En toch zijn we niet zo ver gevallen dat we niet
meer van onszelf kunnen maken dan we zijn. Wij zijn, bij voorkeur, solitaire jagers, maar vanavond
bevinden wij ons in vredig gezelschap. Wij dragen in elke druppel van ons bloed een vervuilende
wreedheid… maar hoewel we met honger doordrenkt zijn, blijft de menselijkheid. Koude ogen
verlangen nog steeds naar schoonheid,” zegt hij, gebarend rondom de hal, en hij heeft gelijk.
Ondanks het spookachtige of misschien wel juist daardoor is de sobere uitstraling aangrijpend. “Een
sometimes comes across as rather forced, and then the translator must wonder whether that’s
intentional or accidental and translate as such. In this case, it was most likely intentional, which
means puzzling with words until something grammatically correct, yet still with a similar rhythm to it
as the source text, comes out.
7
The ‘unbound’ is another one of the setting-specific irrealia. Since I translated ‘sire’ to avoid
confusion with the Dutch use of the word I must also translate all other setting-specific terms. The
‘unbound’ are vampires unconnected to a coven and/or a prince. This translation seems rather
straightforward, though I considered putting it in with a capital to underline the fact that the word
has a specific meaning. However, since the source text does not use a capital letter either, I opted
out of it.
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verstild hart verlangt nog steeds naar gezelschap. Daarom, Elysium. Daarom, ons hof. Daarom, onze
verdragen. Al onze hogere impulsen – alles dat ons boven brute roofdieren verheft – al het goede dat
voortleeft, wordt vanavond hier tentoongespreid.”
Hij zegt elke keer zoiets, een clichématige openingstoespraak, maar als hij het zegt, is het niet
afgezaagd. Als hij het zegt, is het een sprankje hoop in de rode duisternis. Vanavond, zoals elke
avond, applaudisseert de menigte.
“Mijn beste mede-Verwanten8, alsjeblieft – neem plaats. We hebben vanavond twee gasten
in ons midden,” zegt hij, wijzend naar de twee vreemdelingen. Zoals hij vast en zeker had bedoeld,
kijkt iedereen naar hen op. Raphael gaat rechterop staan en ik voel een straaltje waardering voor
hem, hij is aan het Duwen9 maar het is zwak en kunstmatig, te veel uitgespreid over te afgestompte
zielen. Hij probeert onze blikken te verwarmen, maar het is als een lucifer aansteken in een cel vol
bevroren vlees.
8
‘Kindred’ is another setting-specific term, denoting the race of vampires. They name themselves
Kindred because they are, in a way, kinsmen, having all come from the first vampire, the biblical
Caine, and because they are a secret society and if any hapless mortal should overhear vampires
talking about each other they would not immediately know the truth. It is also considered tawdry to
refer to themselves as vampires. I considered ‘familie’ briefly, but that would make it sound too
mafia, so I settled for the direct translation, ‘Verwanten’.
9
The source text says “[…] he’s Pushing Out but it’s weak and artificial.” With ‘Pushing Out’ the
point-of-view character means the vampire in question uses one of the supernatural powers that
comes with being Embraced, though she herself is young and she (and with her the reader) has not
yet learned the more common term for that power, Presence, which is the ability to affect the
feelings of the people around you. It is here described as a sort of altering wave that is pushed
towards the targets, and therefore I chose to translate it as ‘Duwen’, with a capital letter to denote
importance, as in the source text.
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Ambrose reageert slechts gelaten.
“Mag ik onze gasten voor de avond introduceren?” Hij geeft ze een strakke, tolererende
glimlach. “Ik weet dat jullie de formaliteiten van onze bijeenkomsten wat verstikkend kunnen vinden,
maar toe, wees ons ter wille met jullie namen en een opsomming van jullie afstamming.”
Raphael ontmoet zijn blik. “Ik ben Raphael Ladue, en mijn schepper was Old John.”
Ik heb geen idee wie Old John in godsnaam is, maar anderen blijkbaar wel. Vele bleke
gezichten kijken reikhalzend op om hem met hernieuwde interesse te bekijken en de meeste
geïnteresseerden zitten vooraan, waar de macht is. Rowen kijkt niet om, maar alle anderen in de
eerste rij wel, de gezichten zorgvuldig uitdrukkingloos. Een paar rijen daarachter zijn er een paar
Verwanten die hun angst niet kunnen onderdrukken.
“Zo, zo,” zegt Maxwell. “Een roemruchte afstamming, zeker. En je metgezel?”
“Ik ben Ambrose Masterson en ik ben Verworden10 door de Onheilige.”
Dat krijgt iedereen aan het staren. Iedereen behalve de nieuwsten van ons weten wie de
Onheilige is. Het is zoiets als zeggen dat je vader de duivel is.
“Gelul,” zegt een stem uit het midden, een man in een onberispelijk mooi pak met een huid
als albast.
10
Another setting-specific term, ‘Embraced.’ To be Embraced by a vampire is to be turned into one.
The process involves draining the human body of all blood and then giving it back by letting them
drink it from the vein of the sire, with the vampire ‘taint’ in it. The word is not used in the
conventional meaning of ‘taking into one’s arms’ but in the sense of corrupting someone and taking
hold of someone. The Dutch word ‘omhelzen’ simply would not cut it, having connotations of
warmth and safety that do not apply to the process. After some searching I found the word
‘verworden’, which means both ‘to change’ and ‘to deteriorate’. In a way to be turned into a vampire
is to change and deteriorate the living body, so the word fit the process.
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Ambrose ontbloot zijn tanden en we kunnen allemaal zien dat ze onmenselijk zijn,
vlijmscherp en onnatuurlijk lang. Niet zoals Scratch, echter. Terwijl Scratch zijn mond een ware ruïne
is, een fout van de natuur, ziet deze mond er uit als zorgvuldig geëvolueerd om te doorboren en te
verscheuren.
“Ja,” zegt de Prins. “Nu weet ik het weer. Van de DNC.” Ambrose knijpt zijn ogen samen en
knikt.
(Zei Maxwell nu “D&C” – wat een abortus betekent? Of was het “DNC,” de Democratische
Nationale Conventie met de rellen? Of is het iets compleet anders?)
Maxwell gaat verder. “Ondanks hun… welbekende afstamming, hebben onze gasten er in het
verleden voor gekozen onze gastvrijheid te negeren. Desalniettemin hoop ik dat jullie mij allemaal
zullen volgen in hen een hoffelijk welkom te heten vanavond.
Onze gasten delen een gemeenschappelijk probleem met ons. We zijn beiden bezorgd over
de daden van ene Bruce Miner. Garret, als je zo vriendelijk zou willen zijn..? Ik ben vrij hulpeloos als
het op het programmeren van videorecorders aankomt.” De uitspraak veroorzaakt gelach.
Terwijl hij aan het praten was, heeft Garret een grote tv binnengerold, waar hij nu mee
rommelt tot er een opgenomen nieuwsuitzending op komt. Het verhaal gaat over een man in Cicero
die zich verzet tegen zijn arrestatie en de politie ontvlucht; halverwege laten ze een korrelige
opname van een politiecamera zien, van een potige man in een vieze overal, worstelend met een
politieman. De twee slingeren tijdelijk uit het beeld van de camera en dan komt de diender over de
motorkap vliegen. Het is dramatisch, des te meer omdat het zonder geluid is.
De sombere nieuwspresentator vult aan met wat ik al gehoord had – vrouw en dochter
leeggebloed, handboeien gebroken, et cetera.
Ze plaatsen een stilstaand frame uit de opname naast wat duidelijk een verkleinde foto uit
het fotoalbum van een buurman is. De eerste is voornamelijk gewoon een grijze vlek, zo ongeveer
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wat we allemaal in de spiegel zien als we een keer de moeite nemen om te kijken. De laatste is een
bedroevend gemiddelde blanke man met slecht haar.
Als het nieuwsitem eindigt, is het even stil.
“Commentaar?” zegt Maxwell uiteindelijk.
Scratch staat op. “Maak hem af,” zegt hij. “Hij is van mijn clan, hij deelt míjn vloek en nog
steeds zeg ik, maak hem af.”
Discussing A Hunger Like Fire
Most of the translation problems in this particular excerpt are on the language and style used
for the novel and setting-specific irrealia. Stolze’s way of writing is very erratic, using lots of comma’s
to force pauses in the text, creating tension and a sense of importance to certain scenes. Since this
scene is the first entrance of Chicago’s Prince, the usage of the style most likely has the intention to
lend gravitas to the man and his behaviour by punctuating it with extra pauses. The setting-specific
irrealia each has its own background and connotations that might be hard to retain in the target
language, Dutch. While each problem has been individually discussed in the footnotes, below I will
view them in light of the whole book and the special attention for fantasy-specific aspects of the
novel.
As mentioned, the scene in the chosen excerpt is the first in which the Prince of Chicago, an
important character in the setting and one of the protagonists, is introduced to the reader. To
immediately give the reader some sense of who this man is, the author uses certain a certain style of
writing to emphasize both this man’s character and his status, as well as casting light on the reaction
of the other vampires to certain behaviour and happenings. In this, attitude is very important, and
translating the power dynamics in this scene properly was one of the biggest challenges. The author
uses rhythm and punctuation to set the atmosphere, and to translate that similarly to Dutch proved
difficult, especially the entrance of the Prince.
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“By the time he reaches the chair, McLean has opened the box and produced (with suitable
small flourishes) a shiny metal sword. Maxwell sits on the throne and McLean hands him the
weapon. Maxwell unsheathes it and lays the naked blade across his knees, and it’s hard to
explain his expression when he does this. It’s ambiguous, oblique. You can read it as an
absolute commitment to the cause that all this pomp represents. You can read it as straightfaced irony, a double bladed visage that mocks this pretentious formality by perfecting it.
You can read it as a constrained tyranny, a reined-in contempt for the ceremony that says, “I
don’t need this ridiculous metal stick to enforce my will.”
His expression alters, and for a moment I’m certain that he winked at me. Then I see
the movements, the shifts of posture through the gallery and I realize just how many of us
had the same thought” (Stolze, 65).
The description of Maxwell’s expression was difficult to translate, with the short, pointed sentences,
the repetition of ‘You can read it as…’ which does not translate well to Dutch, and the message
behind this particular paragraph about the character that’s being described: pointed, direct, brooking
no nonsense but suffering it for duty and genial when he wants to. Retaining the short sentence
structure in Dutch was difficult, and in the ended I decided to not keep the same repetition of ‘You
can read it as…’ in Dutch but altered it a little to make the sentences flow better, avoid making them
look construed and unnatural.
“Tegen de tijd dat hij de stoel bereikt, heeft McLean de kist geopend en er (met gepaste
zwierigheid) een glimmend metalen zwaard uitgehaald. Maxwell gaat op de troon zitten en
McLean overhandigt hem het wapen. Maxwell haalt het uit de schede en legt het naakte
staal over zijn knieën, en het is moeilijk om zijn blik te duiden terwijl hij dit doet. Deze is
meerduidig, subtiel. Je kunt er de complete overgave aan de zaak die al dit machtsvertoon
symboliseert in lezen. Je kunt hem lezen als uitgestreken ironie, een dubbel snijdend gelaat
dat deze pretentieuze formaliteiten bespot door ze te perfectioneren. Je kunt er beheerste
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tirannie in lezen, een beteugelde minachting voor de ceremonie die zegt, ‘ik heb dit
belachelijke staafje metaal niet nodig om mijn wil op te leggen.”
The other problems in this excerpt were the setting-specific irrealia that were present in the text:
Sire, Kindred, Embrace, Unbound, Elysium. Each term has its own special meaning. Some, like
‘Elyisium’, did not need translating, being Latin word and retaining the same connotation of peace.
Others, like ‘Kindred’ (Verwanten) and ‘Unbound’ (Ongebondenen) were fairly straightforward. The
last two were mind-bending, considering the collocations associated with them by the vampires. That
same understanding should be felt by the reader, be it source text or target text, and getting that
right might be rather difficult. With ‘Sire’ (Schepper) the difficulty was to find an equivalent that
suggested enough distance between Sire and Childe, without any collocation of warmth, for the
relationship between Sire and Childe is rarely, if at all, one of warmth and love. More likely it is
reminiscent of a boss and his employee. With ‘Embrace’ (Verworden), the act of being turned into a
vampire, this is a little more difficult, for embracing someone does have a connotation of warmth
and affection, even though that is not what is meant; in Embracing someone, the vampire sucks all
the blood and life out of a human, then feeds them of their own veins to turn them into a vampire.
The victim gets ‘embraced into the fold’ so to speak. To be embraced is to be created anew, and it is
from that association that I attempted to find a decent solution. I finally settled on ‘Verworden’
cause it has the connotation of creation but also sounds a little like ‘verworven’, the connotation of
taking someone in, and ‘verdorven’, the corruption that is a vampire according to humans.
In short, in this novel the most important fantasy aspects to pay attention to would be: the
setting, a mingling of modern Chicago and popular culture with a society of blood-drinking undead
who live under strict rules imposed on them by their betters; the culture, a strict hierarchy and an
intricate system of etiquette developed over hundreds of years of (un)living, imposed upon the
‘younger’ generation by those in power so they can retain their exalted position; and the irrealia,
which form part of the foundation of the setting and the interaction between the characters.
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Neil Gaiman - American Gods
The second excerpt is that of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, first published in 2001. In this
novel, the world is as it is, with one major difference: all mythology is fact. Gods like Odin, Loki,
Thoth, Eostre, Anubis, Kali and Anansi all exist and make an appearance in the novel. It tells the story
of a man named Shadow - actually the Norse god Baldur, son of Odin, though he doesn’t know this
himself - who gets hired by a confidence man called Mr. Wednesday to do some jobs for him.
Gradually Shadow – and with him the reader – learns that Mr. Wednesday is actually the Norse god
Odin, and that his plan is to regain the power he used to have as a god of the Vikings and rule the
world once again. For that he needs the support of many of the other forgotten gods of all
pantheons, though. All these gods have been brought to the United States by the immigrants, and
therefore live there and not in their country of origin. They travel through the United States to make
contact with them; the Egyptian gods Anubis and Thoth, who run a funeral home nowadays and have
Horus and Bast with them, the African trickster god Anansi the Spider, the Slavic god Czernobog and
Slavic goddesses the Zorya, the German Goddess Eostre. In this they have to contend with the
world’s new gods however, going by the principle that man creates their own gods; these new gods
bear names like Technology and Media and are quite against giving up their power over mankind.
Shadow is the linchpin in this struggle, and he’s not even sure he wants to be. The novel is a sort of
‘road novel’; Shadow and Mr. Wednesday travel through the United States to find supporters for
their cause.
The excerpt chosen is where Mr. Wednesday tries to recruit ‘Easter’, who is actually the
Germanic goddess Eostre, whose fertility rites were the basis of the Christian festival of Easter, as is
described in the excerpt: rabbits, eggs and candy were part of Eostre’s rites. In the novel, Easter
claims that she is not a forgotten goddess, for every year the humans still practice her rituals, but
Wednesday is quick to point out that they don’t do it to honour her but their replacement god, Jesus
Christ. This results in a monologue by Wednesday to guilt trip Eostre into helping him.
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The setting of this novel is not one that would cause a translator much trouble; it is
contemporary America, and the fantasy elements are not all that abundant throughout the novel.
The fact that the protagonists are all gods does little to chance this, as they do not use much divine
power, they all act mostly like normal humans. Some things, like Shadow’s dead wife following him
around, are of course elements of the supernatural, but it is not until rather late in the book that
such things as magic and supernatural creatures really begin to manifest themselves. Aspects of
government are not important in this novel, since there is no mention of a hierarchy with rules.
There is a hierarchy amongst the gods, but it is not bound up in rules and is resolved mostly on who
is the strongest. There are also not many setting-specific realia in this excerpt; since the novel entails
many mythological aspects, which have been studied in many different countries, many target
language equivalents already exist. This excerpt was chosen mainly as an example of the difficulties
that may arise when a translator tries to keep the work inherently logical when the author
incorporates things that are not easily translated into another language.
Amerikaanse Goden
Neil Gaiman
Er zat een vrouw op het gras, under een boom, met een papieren tafelkleed voor zich
uitgespreid en een assortiment aan Tupperwarebakjes op het kleed.
Ze was – niet dik, nee, verre van dik: wat ze was, een woord waar Shadow tot nu toe nooit
reden voor had om te gebruiken, was wulps.11 Haar haren waren zo licht dat het wit was, het soort
11
There is no perfect translation for the word ‘curvaceous’. The image of a well-rounded woman,
probably with an hourglass figure, that comes with reading that word has several different
connotations; beautiful, well-rounded, sexual. As with most other occurrences of words where a
source word has no one-on-one counterpart in the target language – i.e. a word with the same
multiple meanings – the translator must chose which of those meanings takes precedence and chose
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platinablonde lokken dat zou moeten toebehoren aan een al lang gestorven filmster, haar lippen
waren karmijnrood gestift en ze zag eruit alsof ze ergens tussen de vijfentwintig en de vijftig jaar was.
Ze was een gevuld ei op een bord aan het uitzoeken toen ze dichterbij kwamen. Ze keek op
terwijl Wednesday haar naderde, legde het ei dat ze had gekozen neer en veegde haar hand af.
‘Hallo, oude bedrieger,’ zei ze, maar ze glimlachte terwijl ze het zei en Wednesday boog diep, pakte
haar hand en bracht deze naar zijn lippen.
Hij zei, ‘je ziet er goddelijk uit.’
‘Hoe zou ik er anders uit moeten zien?’ verlangt ze liefjes. ‘Trouwens, je bent een leugenaar.
New Orleans was een grote fout – Ik ben, wat, dertien kilo aangekomen daar? Ik zweer het je. Ik wist
dat ik weg moest gaan toen ik begon te waggelen. De bovenkant van mijn dijen wrijven nu tegen
elkaar aan als ik loop, kan je het geloven?’ Dat laatste was aan Shadow gericht. Hij wist niet wat hij
als antwoord moest geven en voelde een warme gloed over zijn gezicht trekken. De vrouw lachte
verrukt. ‘Hij bloost. Wednesday mijn schat, je hebt me een blozer gebracht. Wat ontzettend geweldig
van je. Hoe heet hij?’
‘Dit is Shadow,’ zei Wednesday. Het leek alsof hij plezier had in Shadow’s ongemak. ‘Shadow,
zeg Easter eens gedag.’12
a word based on that. The Dutch options were ‘welgevormd’ or ‘vol’, focussing on the well-rounded
aspect, ‘weelderig’ focussing on the beautiful as well as the well-rounded aspect, ‘rondborstig’ or
‘voluptueus’ focussing on the well-rounded and the sexual aspect or finally ‘wulps’, focussing mainly
on the sexual and beautiful aspect but with the well-rounded hourglass figure in mind. This last
option is the one I chose, as the sexual and beautiful aspects seems most important in this scene –
the protagonist blushes because of her appearance and manner – and she is described as a sort of
Marilyn Monroe, to whom ‘wulps’ would also apply.
12
Not translating this occurrence of the word ‘Easter’ has two reasons. One, because it is a name and
I prefer to keep names as they are as well as that the Dutch equivalent, ‘Pasen’, would not sound
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[…]
Ze dronk een papieren beker met iets wat eruitzag als witte wijn leeg en ging toen staan.
‘Shadow is een goede naam,’ zei ze. ‘Ik wil een Mochaccino. Kom mee.’
Ze begon weg te lopen. ‘En het eten dan?’ vroeg Wednesday. ‘Je kan het hier niet zomaar
laten liggen.’
Ze glimlachte naar hem, wees naar het meisje dat naast de hond zat en hief daarna haar
armen op om de Haight en rest van de wereld te omvatten. ‘Laat het hen voeden,’ zei ze en ze liep
weg, met Wednesday en Shadow achter haar aan.
‘Denk eraan,’ zei ze tegen Wednesday terwijl ze liepen. ‘Ik ben rijk. Met mij gaat het prima.
Waarom zou ik je moeten helpen?’
‘Je bent een van ons,’ zei hij. ‘Je bent net zo vergeten en ongeliefd en verwaarloosd als ieder
van ons. Het is vrij duidelijk aan wiens kant je zou moeten staan.’
Ze bereikten een café met terras, gingen naar binnen en namen plaats. Er was slechts één
serveerster, die haar wenkbrauwpiercing droeg als een teken van sociale status en een vrouw die
koffie maakte achter de toonbank. De serveerster naderde hen, glimlachend uit gewoonte, en nam
hun bestelling op.13
appropriate and two because it has importance further on in the chapter. If I would translate this to
the Dutch name for Easter then the whole connection between the feast and the old German
goddess of the dawn, Eostre, would be lost, for Eostre does not at all resemble ‘Pasen’ while it
certainly resembles Easter. The name is therefore of importance to the story and must stay in its
original form.
13
The source text had an extra phrase here, ‘sat them down’, when just a few lines before that the
characters had already ‘sat down’ themselves. When I informed the author Neil Gaiman of this small
mistake he at first assumed I had an older version, but when he learned I had what is called “the
author’s preferred text” from 2005 he did some checking and found that, even though he had known
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Easter legde haar slanke hand op de rug van Wednesday’s vierkante grijze hand. ‘Ik zeg het
je,’ zei ze, ‘met mij gaat het prima. Op mijn feestdagen doen ze zich nog steeds tegoed aan eieren en
konijnen, aan snoep en aan vlees, als symbool voor wedergeboorte en paren. Ze dragen bloemen op
hun hoed en geven elkaar bloemen. Ze doen het in mijn naam. Elk jaar meer en meer van ze. In mijn
naam, oude wolf.’
‘En jij wordt dik en welvarend van hun aanbidding en liefde?’ zei hij op droge toon.
‘Doe niet zo stom.’ Plotseling klonk ze erg vermoeid. Ze nam een slok van haar Mochaccino.
‘Serieuze vraag, mijn schat. Ik ben het er ongetwijfeld mee eens dat miljoenen en miljoenen
van ze elkaar geschenken geven in jouw naam en dat ze nog steeds de rites van jouw festival
beoefenen, tot het zoeken naar verborgen eieren aan toe. Maar hoeveel van hen weten wie je bent?
Hm? Pardon juffrouw?’ Dit laatste tegen hun serveerster.
Ze zei, ‘Wilt u nog een espresso?’
‘Nee, mijn schat. Ik vroeg me enkel af of je14 een klein meningsverschil dat we hier hadden,
kunt oplossen. Mijn vriendin en ik kunnen niet eens worden over wat het woord ‘Easter’ betekent.15
Weet jij het misschien?’
of it before, it had still slipped his and his editor’s attention in the publication of his final version of
the novel. Mr. Gaiman said he wanted the second sitting down to be removed, so true to the
author’s wishes I left it out in the translation. This is a prime example of how a translator can pick up
things even editors miss, simply because they generally read the text with more attention for detail
due to having to translate it.
14
The English ‘you’ can of course be translated to both ‘je’ and ‘u’ in Dutch. Since in this situation it is
an older man speaking to a younger woman, and Wednesday is a rather jovial fellow, I chose to
translate it with the informal ‘je’.
15
I’ve doubted about whether inserting the word ‘Engelse’ to this sentence to make clear that
‘Easter’ is an English word, but the translator should not insert his own thoughts into the text too
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Het meisje staarde naar hem alsof groene padden zich door zijn lippen naar buiten begonnen
te wurmen. Daarna zei ze, ‘Ik weet helemaal niks van dat Christelijke gedoe. Ik ben een paganist.’
De vrouw achter de toonbank zei, ‘Ik denk dat het Latijn of zoiets is voor “Christus is
herrezen” misschien.’
‘Echt waar?’ zei Wednesday.
‘Ja, echt,’ zei de vrouw. ‘Easter. Zoals de zon opkomt in het oosten, east,16 weet je.
‘De herrezen zoon. Natuurlijk – een zeer logische veronderstelling.’ De vrouw glimlachte en
keerde terug naar haar koffiemolen. Wednesday keek op naar de serveerster. ‘Ik denk dat ik wel nog
een espresso neem, als je het niet erg vindt. En vertel me, als een paganist, wie aanbid je dan?’
‘Aanbid?’
‘Dat klopt. Ik neem aan dat je een best wel ruime keuze hebt. Dus aan wie wijd je je huiselijk
altaar? Voor wie buig je? Tegen wie bid je bij dageraad en schemering?’
Haar lippen vertrokken in een aantal figuren zonder iets te zeggen voor ze zei, ‘Het vrouwelijk
principe. Het is een empowerment iets, weet je wel.’
‘Zeker. En dit vrouwelijk principe van je. Heeft ze een naam?’
much, and such an addition would not make it any more clear. It is already known from the beginning
of the book that the characters are in the United States so that they are discussing an English word
should not be odd. However, it does alert the reader to the fact that they are reading a translation,
whereas the ideal translation would be one where the reader would not, in fact, realize it was one.
(Hermans, 4)
16
This is a similar problem as in note 15, but here I chose to add the ‘east’, to underline the
importance of the word in this context. The Dutch ‘oosten’ resembles the English ‘east’ but not
enough as to make the link directly clear. One can argue from context that the reader would
understand that it was the English east being discussed, but since the connection is fairly important
to the story I thought that here it would be appropriate to mention it again.
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‘Ze is de godin in ons allen,’ zei het meisje met de wenkbrauwring, terwijl haar wangen een
kleur kregen. ‘Ze heeft geen naam nodig.’
‘Aha,’ zei Wednesday met een grote apengrijns, ‘dus houd je geweldige bacchanalen ter ere
van haar? Drink je bloedwijn onder de volle maan, terwijl scharlaken kaarsen branden in zilveren
houders? Stap je naakt het zeeschuim in, extatisch zingend naar je naamloze godin terwijl de golven
je benen beroeren, likkend aan je dijen als de tongen van duizend luipaarden?’17
‘U houdt me voor het lapje,’ zei ze. ‘We doen niet van dat soort dingen die u beschrijft.’ Ze
haalde diep adem. Shadow vermoedde dat ze tot tien aan het tellen was. ‘Nog meer koffie hier? Nog
een mochaccino voor u, mevrouw?’ haar glimlach leek ontzettend op degene waarmee ze hen had
begroet toen ze binnenkwamen.
Ze schudden hun hoofden en de serveerster draaide zich om om een andere klant te
begroeten.
‘Daar,’ zei Wednesday, ‘loopt iemand die ‘het geloof niet heeft en de lol niet zal hebben.’
Chesterton. Een heuse paganist! Dus. Zullen we buiten de straat op gaan, Easter mijn schat, en de
oefening herhalen? Erachter komen hoeveel voorbijgangers weten dat hun Easter-festival haar naam
heeft van Eostre van de Dageraad? Eens kijken – ik weet het. We zullen het aan honderd mensen
vragen. Voor elk van hen die de waarheid weet, mag je een van mijn vingers afsnijden en als die
opraken mijn tenen; voor elke twintig die het niet weten zal jij een nacht de liefde met mij bedrijven.
En jij hebt hier het voordeel – dit is immers San Francisco. Er lopen heidenen en paganisten en
Wiccans genoeg op deze steile straten.’
Haar groene ogen keken naar Wednesday. Ze waren, besliste Shadow, precies dezelfde kleur
als een blad in de lente als de zon er doorheen schijnt. Ze zei niets.
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‘We kunnen het proberen,’ ging Wednesday verder. ‘Maar ik zou eindigen met tien vingers,
tien tenen, en vijf nachten in jouw bed. Vertel me dus niet dat ze je aanbidden en je feestdag in acht
nemen. Ze mompelen je naam, maar het heeft geen betekenis voor ze. Helemaal niets.’
Tranen stonden in haar ogen. ‘Dat weet ik,’ zei ze zachtjes. ‘Ik ben niet dom.’
‘Nee,’ zei Wednesday. ‘Dat ben je niet.’
Discussing American Gods
The biggest difficulty in this excerpt was the connection between Easter and Eostre that the author
uses to show the correlation between the Germanic fertility goddess and the Christian Easter festival.
The Dutch for Easter is ‘Pasen’, but then the whole connection with Eostre is lost to the reader, for
the whole scene relies on the visual link between Easter and Eostre. Luckily it is made fairly apparent
for the Dutch reader that it is about the Easter festival, plus the fact that the setting is clearly foreign
and so keeping the names exotic might not be as jarring, but it requires some linguistic tricks to keep
the scene intact, which may come across as artificial to the reader. The name ‘Wednesday’ is
similarly a problem. Wednesday is Odin’s day of old, though more derived from his Anglo-Saxon
name Woden; people who are unfamiliar with Norse mythology may be unaware of the connection,
which is most likely exactly the author’s intent. However, here it is important to be consistent:
translate all names, or translate none of them. Since some names would ruin parts of the plot in
translation, all names remain as they were.
While this excerpt had few genre-specific problems, it is a great example of how the inherent
meanings or visual aspects of names can be very difficult to translate to the target language – in this
case Dutch – because of their importance to the characters and the story and the damage it would
do to the story or scene if it were translated without a second thought. As stated in the previous
chapter by Fernandes, translating names may be one of the most problematic aspects of translation
because of how they tie to the character or the plot, and the character of Eostre, while minor, has an
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important role to play that would be diminished by careless handling of her name and background.
And this is not only true for her name in this novel; all gods have names that refer, openly or
obliquely, to their backgrounds. Retaining these references in the target text is challenging, which is
why sometimes the best option is to keep them as they are.
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Good Omens
The third excerpt is of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, first published in
1990, though this excerpt is from the revised edition published in 2006. Here the setting is England,
in a world where angels and demons are very much real and meddling with the world in the name of
God and the Devil, though the authors stress that real good and evil is not made in heaven or hell,
but is inside the human race itself. The book starts with the arrival of the Antichrist on earth to
herald the apocalypse; the Antichrist arrives in baby form and is supposed to be swapped with the
baby of an American diplomat. However, one of the attending nuns makes a mistake and swaps the
baby with that of an English accountant instead. When both babies go home, both heaven and hell
send people to the American diplomat’s child, who is a normal human, to teach him good and evil,
while the real Antichrist grows up undisturbed in Tadfield, England. When the apocalypse begins
eleven years later this mistake causes the Antichrist to have no idea about who he is and what is
being expected of him, namely to lead the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to the end of the world.
He only has this vague feeling that he wants to conquer the world, but lacks the theoretical
background to discern why. In this story, the last days of the earth have been correctly predicted by
the witch Agnes Nutter several centuries before, and it is her descendent, Anathema Device, who is
now preparing herself for it; Agnes’ prophecies have always come true before. The two scenes in the
excerpt are about the demon Crowley - who was responsible for making sure the swapping of the
babies went alright and is now also being held responsible for everything that went wrong after -
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who is trying to get out of London and towards Tadfield, and about Adam the Antichrist, hiding in a
grove with his friends, waiting for the Four Horsemen so that the apocalypse can begin.
The setting of this novel is England, more specifically London and Tadfield, where Crowley
and Adam respectively live. The authors introduce the supernatural elements of angels and demons
and witches as something quite natural, something that has always been there but never really
occurred to the human race because they were simply stories to them. Of course, the angels and
demons had strict order to keep themselves a secret, so any meddling with humans would be done
circumspectly. And meddling is why they existed, though generally in small ways, being the little
butterfly flapping its wings to cause a great storm a while later. All supernatural occurrences
therefore seem quite small and easy to cover up, though it changes drastically when the apocalypse
actually starts and no one is bothering to hide it anymore, which is made quite clear in the first part
of this excerpt where Crowley, to the eyes of the humans, survives driving in a flaming car.
As with American Gods, this novel has few genre-specific problems next to the setting, but
many names/realia that cause difficulties in translation to the target language, Dutch. While not all of
them appear in this excerpt, again I’ve chosen to retain the names in their original format for the
sake of consistency. Some names, like Crowley and Adam, could have working target language
equivalence, but others, like Anathema Device and Newton Pulsifer, would lose in translation. Next
to the names the merging of the supernatural with the contemporary setting so that it remains
inherently logical takes some effort on the part of the translator, but other than that this novel’s
greatest challenge is that it is a satire, and the language used by the authors is aimed towards the
goal of amusing their audience. Retaining that humour would most likely be the translator’s main
concern with this novel.
Goede Voorbodes
Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
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Je zou het niet als dezelfde auto hebben herkend. Er was bijna geen centimeter zonder deuken.
Beide voorlampen waren gebroken. De wieldoppen waren allang verdwenen. Hij zag eruit als de
veteraan van honderd sloopraces.
De trottoirs waren erg geweest. De voetgangerstunnel was nog erger. Het ergste was het
oversteken van de rivier de Theems. Hij had tenminste de tegenwoordigheid van geest gehad om alle
ramen te sluiten.
Toch had hij het gehaald.
Over een paar honderd meter zou hij op de M40 zijn; een redelijke vrije rit naar Oxfordshire.
Er was nog maar een probleempje: tussen Crowley en de open weg lag nogmaals de M25. Een
schreeuwend, gloeiend lint van pijn en donker licht.* Odegra. Niets kon het oversteken en dat
overleven.
Niets sterfelijks in ieder geval. En hij wist niet zeker wat het zou doen met een demon. Het
kon hem niet doden, maar plezierig zou het zeker niet zijn.
Er stond een politieversperring voor het viaduct voor hem. Uitgebrande wrakken –sommigen
brandden nog – waren getuige van het lot van de vorige auto’s die over het viaduct boven de
donkere weg moesten rijden.
De politie zag er niet blij uit.
Crowley schakelde naar de tweede versnelling en trapte het gaspedaal ver in.
Hij reed met honderd door de versperring. Dat was het makkelijke gedeelte.
Voorvallen van spontane zelfontbranding staan in de hele wereld geregistreerd. Het ene
moment is iemand vrolijk zijn leven aan het lijden; het volgende moment is er slechts een treurige
foto van een hoopje as en een eenzame en mysterieus onverkoolde voet of hand. Voorvallen van
spontane voertuigontbranding zijn minder goed gedocumenteerd.
Wat de statistieken ook waren, ze zijn zojuist met één omhoog gegaan.
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De leren stoelbekleding begon te roken. Terwij hij voor zich uit staarde, tastte hij
linkshandig18 op de bijrijderstoel voor Agnes Nutter’s Fijne en Accurate Profetieën19 en verhuisde
deze naar de veiligheid van zijn schoot. Hij wou dat ze dit had voorspeld.† Daarna verzwelgde de
vlammen de auto.
Hij moest door blijven rijden.
Aan de andere kant van het viaduct was nog een politieversperring, om de overtocht van
auto’s die London in probeerden te komen te voorkomen. Ze waren aan het lachen om een verhaal
dat zojuist over de radio was verteld, dat een motoragent op de M6 een gestolen auto had
aangehouden, enkel om te ontdekken dat de bestuurder een grote octopus was.
Sommige politiekorpsen geloofden ook alles. De Metropolitische politie niet. De Met was de
meest taaie, cynisch pragmatische, koppig nuchtere politiekorps in heel Groot-Brittanië.
Er was veel voor nodig om een smeris van de Met van streek te maken.
Er was bijvoorbeeld een grote, beschadigde auto dat niets meer of minder was dan een
vuurbal, een vlammend, brullend, verwrongen metalen wrak uit de Hel voor nodig, bestuurd door
18
It is an English car, so the driver’s seat is to the right and the passenger seat to the left. I’ve
doubted about whether to naturalise it to make it conform to the Dutch cars that Dutch readers will
know, but it does not serve much purpose nor does keeping it as left-handed interfere with the story.
19
The title of the book in the source text is Agnes Nutter’s Nice and Accurate Prophecies. As is
described in the novel several times, “nice also means ‘scrupulously exact’.”(Pratchett & Gaiman, 45)
With that in mind I had to think of a similar Dutch word which both has the ‘nice’ and ‘exact’
connotation, which of course the most common equivalent for ‘nice’ in Dutch, ‘leuk’, has not. The
only translation of ‘nice’ which came close was ‘fijn’, which aside from the ‘nice’ aspect is also
mentioned in the van Dale dictionary as meaning “in staat bijzondere onderscheiding te maken”,
with the connotations of quality, precision and purity attached. This together with ‘accuraat’ makes it
perfectly clear to the readers that these prophecies are indeed very accurate.
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een grijnzende gek met zonnebril gezeten tussen de vlammen, die dikke zwarte rook achterliet en
recht op hen afkwam door de neerslaande regen en wind met een snelheid van honderddertig
kilometer per uur.
Dat zou het elke keer weer doen.
~*~
De groeve was een kalm middelpunt in de stormachtige wereld.
Donder rommelde niet slechts boven hun hoofden, het scheurde de lucht in tweeën.
‘Er komen nog wat vrienden van me,’ herhaalde Adam. ‘Ze zullen hier snel zijn en dan kunnen
we echt beginnen.’
Hond begon te huilen. Het was niet langer het betoverende gehuil van een eenzame wolf
maar het vreemde getril van een kleine hond in grote problemen.
Pepper zat naar haar knieën te staren.
Ze leek iets op haar lever te hebben.
Eindelijk keek ze op en staarde Adam in zijn lege grijze ogen.
‘Welk stuk ga jij hebben, Adam?’ zei ze.
De storm was vervangen door een plotselinge, luide stilte.
‘Wat?’ zei Adam.
‘Nou, je hebt de wereld verdeeld, toch, en wij hebben allemaal een stuk gekregen – welk stuk
ga jij hebben?’
De stilte zong als een harp, hoog en dun.
‘Ja,’ zei Brian. ‘Je hebt ons nooit verteld welk stuk jíj gaat hebben.’
‘Pepper heeft gelijk,’ zei Wensleydale. ‘Het lijkt míj alsof er niet veel over is, als wij al deze
landen gaan hebben.’
Adam’s mond ging open en dicht.
‘Wat?’ zei hij.
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‘Welk stuk is van jou, Adam?’ zei Pepper.
Adam staarde haar aan. Hond was opgehouden met huilen en keek zijn meester met de
onbeweeglijke, gespannen, peinzende blik van een vuilnisbakje aan.
‘I-ik?’ zei hij.
De stilte ging maar door, één noot dat de geluiden van de wereld kon overstemmen.
‘Maar ik zal Tadfield hebben,’ zei Adam.
Ze staarden hem aan.
‘En, en Lower Tadfield, en Norton, en Norton Woods—‘
Ze staarden nog steeds.
Adam’s blik trok over hun gezichten heen.
‘Dat is alles wat ik ooit heb gewild,’ zei Adam.
Ze schudden hun hoofd.
‘Ik kan ze hebben als ik dat wil,’ zei Adam, zijn stem doorspikkeld met stuurse opstandigheid
en zijn opstandigheid omrand met plotselinge twijfel. ‘Ik kan ze ook beter maken. Betere bomen om
in te klimmen, betere vijvers, betere...’
Zijn stem stierf weg.
‘Dat kan je niet,’ zei Wensleydale mat. ‘Ze zijn niet Amerika en al die andere plekken. Ze zijn
echt echt. Trouwens, ze behoren ons allemaal toe. Ze zijn van ons.’
‘En je kan ze niet beter maken,’ zei Brian.
‘Trouwens, zelfs al deed je dat, dan zouden we het allemaal weten,’ zei Pepper.
‘Oh, als dat alles is waar jullie je druk om maken, maak je dan geen zorgen,’ zei Adam luchtig,
‘want ik kan jullie toch allemaal laten doen wat ik wil, wat dan ook—’
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Hij stopte, terwijl zijn oren met afschuw luisterden naar de woorden die zijn mond sprak. De
Zij20 waren aan het terugdeinzen.
Hond deed zijn poten over zijn hoofd.
Adam’s gezicht zag eruit als de verpersoonlijking van de val van een keizerrijk.
‘Nee,’ zei hij schor. ‘Nee. Kom terug. Ik beveel het je!’
Ze verstijfden midden in hun vlucht.
Adam staarde naar hen.
‘Nee, ik meende het niet—’ begon hij. ‘Jullie zijn mijn vrienden—’
Zijn lichaam schokte. Zijn hoofd was achterover gegooid. Hij hief zijn armen op en beukte de
lucht met zijn vuisten.
Zijn gezicht vertrok. De krijtvloer barstte onder zijn schoenen.
Adam opende zijn mond en gilde. Het was een geluid dat een slechts sterfelijke keel niet zou
hebben moeten kunnen voortbrengen; ze dreef uit de groeve21, mengde zich met de storm, zorgde
dat de wolken zich verwrongen tot nieuwe en onaangename vormen.
20
“It didn’t matter what the four had called their gang over the years, […] Everyone else always
referred to them darkly as Them, and eventually they did too.” (Pratchett & Gaiman, 135) ‘Them’ is
what the neighbourhood these kids were ‘terrorizing’ called the four characters whenever they were
referring to them, usually in the context of something bad that happened in their vicinity that the
Them were blamed for. The Dutch equivalent of this pronoun would be ‘zij’, which also fits the
context in which it was used. “Who did this?” “Them, who else?” / “Wie heeft dit gedaan? ‘Zij, wie
anders?” The other option was ‘hen’, but ‘zij’ is more informal and therefore more fitting. It can be
argued that ‘de Zij’ is not grammatical in Dutch, but the same is true for ‘the Them’ in English,
because the author has turned the pronoun into a name and therefore into a noun.
21
“…it wound out of the quarry…” The many options for ‘wound’, ‘blazen’, ‘kronkelen’, ‘schallen’,
‘draaien’, ‘slingeren’, all were not adequate in the sentence. Some were too strong (like ‘schallen’),
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Het ging door en door.
Het weergalmde door het universum, welke een stuk kleiner is dan de meeste
natuurkundigen zouden geloven. Het rammelde aan de hemelse sferen.
Het sprak van verlies en het hield een hele lange tijd niet op.
En toen wel.
Iets stroomde weg.
Adam’s hoofd zakte weer naar beneden. Zijn ogen gingen open.
Wat er ook hiervoor in de groeve had gestaan, Adam Young stond er nu. Een wijzere Adam
Young, maar evengoed Adam Young. Mogelijkerwijs zelfs meer van Adam Young dan er ooit eerder
was geweest.
De spookachtige stilte in de groeve was vervangen door een meer vertrouwde, behaaglijke
stilte, slechts de simpele afwezigheid van geluid.
De bevrijdde Hen zaten in elkaar gedoken tegen de krijten klif, hun ogen op hem gericht.
‘Het is goed,’ zei Adam zachtjes. ‘Pepper? Wensely? Brian? Kom terug. Het is goed. Het is
goed. Ik weet alles nu. En jullie moeten me helpen. Anders gaat het allemaal gebeuren. Het gaat
allemaal echt gebeuren. Het gaat allemaal gebeuren, als we niet iets doen.’
* Eigenlijk geen oxymoron. Het is de kleur na ultraviolet. De technische term ervoor is infrazwart. Het
kan vrij makkelijk gezien worden onder experimentele omstandigheden. Om het experiment uit te
voeren selecteer je simpelweg een gezonde bakstenen muur met een goede aanloop en storm je,
met gebogen hoofd, erop af.
others did not fit the noun it was connected with. In Dutch, a ‘kronkelend geluid’ or a ‘draaiend
geluid’ sounds rather odd. A viable option was a ‘schallend geluid’ but it was too strong a word in this
context. After trying them all I finally settled on a synonym, ‘drijven’, which fit both the noun and the
scene.
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De kleur die in flitsen achter je ogen flikkert, achter de pijn, vlak voor je doodgaat, is
infrazwart.
† Dat had ze. Er stond:
Een strate van lichte zal schreeuwen, de swarte coets van de Serpente sal flammen en een
Kwiene sal niet langer kwiksilveren liederen singen.22
Het grootste gedeelte van de familie had ingestemd met Gelatly Device, die rond 1830 een
korte verhandeling had geschreven waarin het werd uitgelegd als een metafoor voor de verbanning
van Weishaupt’s Illuminati uit Beieren in 1785.
Discussing Good Omens
As mentioned, the difficulty with this novel is mostly that it is a satire; the writing style is often
humorous, with short sentences to lead up to the pun. The scene with Crowley is meant to evoke
laughter, but the scene with Adam would sooner be met with an indulging smile. The fact that angels
and demons exist is taken completely for granted because it is a humorous book, and the angel and
demon that are two of the main characters are really what you’d expect very old humans who’ve
22
“A street of light will screem, the black chariot of the Serpente will flayme, and a Queene wille sing
quickfilveres songes no moar.” A quick search in the Oxford English Dictionary reveals that the
spelling of the words has no source and has sprouted from the fingers of the author only; ‘flame’ for
example was never spelled ‘flayme’ according to the OED, nor was ‘scream’ ever spelled as ‘screem’
(though there were occurrences of ‘skreem’ and ‘screme’ in Middle English according to the OED.)
For a fitting translation, I used the Old and Middle Dutch Dictionary and used either Old or Middle
Dutch spelling for the nouns and verbs, using both forms of Dutch indiscriminately to make the
prophecy look old. I also chose to change the band Queen’s name to ‘Kwiene’, to keep the English
pronunciation but making it look a little more Dutch, conforming with the rest of the sentence.
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seen too much would be: not angelic, not monstrous, just doing their jobs in the eyes of heaven or
hell. They are utterly without pretention and therefore very mundane for supernatural beings. In this
scene with Crowley, he has to drive his car to a hell of his own making which, while not permanently
harming him, is rather ironic; he hadn’t thought to be inside his devised fiery prison when the
apocalypse began, and he’s escaping it to stop the world from ending. The most difficult part of this
scene was bringing the humour across to the target language. The authors manage to sketch a very
lively scene with just a few short sentences, and emulating that in Dutch proved rather difficult.
In the meantime Adam the Antichrist discovers he is actually very much human, capable of
love, with some help from his friends, and realises that if he doesn’t do something soon, everything
he loves will come to an end. The change between Adam the Antichrist and Adam the Human was
the challenge in this scene, to go from the unfeeling supernatural creature whose goal it was to
destroy the world to the boy who would do anything to save it. In the end however, combining the
supernatural with the mundane was fairly easy because of the humoristic writing. As a translator I
was so intent on translating the puns that the rest becomes a part of that. Keeping the setting
believable became inherent to keeping the humour as intact as possible, because part of the humour
was a result of the setting, with angels and demons working together and the Antichrist being raised
away from all evil influence by pure chance. Mostly Good Omens is a comment on how we are the
product of our environment; the son of the Devil can learn to love, angels and demons learn that
they can work together, and ultimately, good and evil comes not from outside influences, but from
within. Keeping that message, while not specifically present in this excerpt, would be something to
keep in mind while translating this novel.
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files: Storm Front and Fool Moon
The last two excerpts are from the first two books in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher,
Storm Front (2000) and Fool Moon (2001). The Dresden Files are about the only openly practicing
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wizard private detective in the United States, Harry Dresden, whose office is in Chicago and who is
asked to deal with many different things, from the horribly mundane to the horrifically supernatural.
In Dresden’s world, not many people believe in the existence of the supernatural and ignore or deny
it, but that doesn’t stop them from hiring a wizard to exorcise their houses (that usually aren’t really
haunted) and tentatively ask for help if there is something wrong that they can’t explain. He also gets
a lot of prank calls of people asking him if he’s serious. To scrape by, Harry Dresden consults for the
police on cases they cannot mundanely explain away, though lieutenant Murphy of the Special
Investigation Unit trusts him about as far as she can throw him. Through his consultancy work for the
police, Harry gets involved in big supernatural problems that threaten his life, his city and the people
he knows/loves. It is a classic detective novel with a supernatural twist.
The setting of these novels is again a grim and dark Chicago, though an alternate universe
from A Hunger Like Fire. In this Chicago, there are vampires, werewolves, witches, wizards, fae,
ghouls, ghosts, angels and demons, basically everything supernatural a person can think of. All of
these creatures live side by side with the normal humans, though hiding from them as much as they
can. It is one of the secret rules of the supernatural society: don’t tell the outsiders. Harry Dresden,
the protagonist, violates this rule by being the only open practitioner of magic in the city, probably in
the country. However, nobody really believes him, so this violation goes fairly unpunished. The
challenge in this setting is to keep the supernatural side of the world grim, dark, and mysterious until
Dresden himself discovers new facts. The novels are whodunits, with someone causing Dresden and
lieutenant Murphy a lot of supernatural trouble until they discover and defeat the culprit.
Harry Dresden is a 30’s detective; poor, gritty, cynical, but with an inherent sense of good to
guide him; A cynical young man who has already seen too much strange stuff to believe in a good
world anymore, but also has his own norms and values and a morality and sense of justice that point
nearly due north. He has killed his own teacher in the arts because the man was trying to make him
cross over the dark side and would sooner die than let innocents take any harm, but his dark sense of
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humour and shabby clothing do not make him very likable. He also has a talking skull called Bob, a
spirit bound to his skull to aid Harry in his magical endeavours. Dresden’s Chicago is a gloomy city,
where vampires, ghosts and gangsters reign.
The setting has two forms of ‘government’, the normal world in which the Chicago Police
Department has its inner hierarchy, and the supernatural one in which there is a White Council of
wizards that created the rules on the use of magic and enforces them with the aid of supernatural
creatures like angels. Dresden is more of a rogue, and gets himself into trouble accordingly. The
novel also has a fair few irrealia that require careful thought in translation, as will be expanded upon
in the footnotes and below.
Storm Front
In the first novel, Storm Front, Dresden is confronted with black sorcerer who flaunts all the
rules of magic to further his own ambition. Because Harry stands in the way of becoming the most
powerful sorcerer of the Chicago area, he becomes an obvious target for the sorcerer’s magical
attacks. The first excerpt is the first few pages of the novel, a character introduction of Harry
Dresden. The narrative is in the first-person point of view of Dresden himself, as he sits in his office
waiting for a job. He’s rather broke and desperately needs work, but can’t really do much normal
work because electrical machines tend to go haywire around him. In this particular scene a new
mailman comes and makes fun of him, to which Harry gives a resigned response; he is used to people
not believing him. When a real prospective client calls, he jumps at the chance, abstaining from his
humoristic remarks to get the job. The author uses short, descriptive sentences to set the scene, and
Dutch is hardly ever as concise as English can be, so translating in the same style proved difficult. In
this particular scene there are no supernatural occurrences, but it shows the attitude of the world
regarding magic and the supernatural; one of contempt, derision and ridicule. To be openly magical
in such a world is not easy, which makes it rather hard for one in Harry’s profession to earn the rent.
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This is fairly usual in contemporary fantasy novels: the main characters are either supernatural
beings or humans getting tangled up with supernatural things, but the one red thread in almost all
contemporary fantasy novels is that the supernatural community hides from the mundane
community. Harry Dresden is the odd one out in that he openly admits he is supernatural, magical,
and for that gets the treatment we would expect such people to be given in our own world, being
viewed as a quack. That feeling of being the resigned butt of oft-heard jokes was an important part of
the scene, and getting that through in translation was a little difficult, especially in the direct
exchange with the mailman, whose confusion and later contempt shows in the words he uses, the
way he acts through the eyes of Harry. Life is not easy for Harry Dresden, and this first scene shows
that very clearly.
Stormnacht
Jim Butcher
Hoofdstuk 1
Ik hoorde de postbode de deur van mijn kantoor naderen, een half uur eerder dan normaal.
Hij klonk niet juist. Zijn voetstappen vielen zwaarder, kwieker, en hij fluitte. Een nieuwe. Hij fluitte
zijn weg tot mijn kantoordeur, viel daarna even stil. Daarna lachte hij.
Daarna klopte hij aan.
Ik kromp ineen. Mijn post komt door de brievenbus tenzij het aangetekend is. Ik krijg maar
een beperkt aantal aangetekende brieven en het is nooit goed nieuws. Ik stond op uit mijn
bureaustoel en opende de deur.
De nieuwe postbode, die er uitzag als een basketbal met armen en benen en een
zonverbrande, kalend hoofd, stond nog te grinniken om het bordje op het deurraam.
Hij keek me even aan en wees met z’n duim richting het bord. “Je maakt een grapje, toch?”
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Ik las het bord (mensen veranderen het soms) en schudde mijn hoofd. “Nee, ik meen het.
Mag ik alstublieft mijn post.”
Dus, ehm. Zoals feestjes, shows, dat soort dingen?” Hij keek langs me heen, alsof hij
verwachte een witte tijger te zien, of mogelijkerwijs een paar schaars geklede assistentes die
ronddansten in mijn eenkamerkantoor.
Ik zuchtte, ik was niet in de stemming om nog eens bespot te worden en reikte naar de post
die hij in zijn handen hield. “Nee, niet dat soort dingen. Ik doe geen feestjes.”
Hij bleef vasthouden, met zijn hoofd een beetje scheef gehouden. “Dus wat dan? Soort van
toekomstvoorspeller? Kaarten en kristallen bollen en zo?”
“Nee,” zei ik tegen hem. “Ik ben geen medium.” Ik trok aan de post.
Hij bleef vasthouden. “Wat ben je dan?”
“Wat staat er op het bord op de deur?”
“Er staat, ‘Harry Dresden. Magiër.’ ”
“Dat ben ik,” bevestigde ik.
“Een echte magiër?” vroeg hij, grijnzend, alsof ik hem de grap moest vertellen. “Spreuken en
drankjes? Demonen en incantaties? Subtiel en snel boos te maken?”
“Niet zo heel subtiel.” Ik trok de post uit zijn hand en keek scherp naar zijn klembord. “Kan ik
voor mijn post tekenen alstublieft?”
De grijns van de nieuwe postbode verdween, vervangen door een frons. Hij overhandigde me
het klembord om me te laten tekenen voor mijn post (alweer een aanmaning van mijn huisbaas) en
zei, “Je bent gek, dat is wat je bent.” Hij nam het klembord terug en zei, “Een prettige dag nog,
meneer.”
Ik keek hem na.
“Typisch,” mompelde ik en sloot de deur.
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Mijn naam is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Bezweer ermee op eigen risico. Ik ben
een magiër. Ik werk vanuit een kantoor in de binnenstad van Chicago. Voor zover ik weet ben ik de
enige openlijk praktiserende professionele magiër in het land. Je kunt me vinden in de gouden gids,
onder “Magiërs.” Geloof het of niet, ik ben de enige die er staat. Mijn advertentie ziet er zo uit:
HARRY DRESDEN – MAGIËR
Verloren Voorwerpen Gevonden. Paranormale Onderzoeken.
Consultatie. Advies. Redelijke Prijzen.
Geen Liefdesdrankjes, Eindeloze Beurzen, Feestjes, of Ander Entertainment.
Het zou je verbazen hoeveel mensen me bellen enkel om te vragen of ik het meen. Maar
toch, als je de dingen hebt gezien ik heb gezien, als je ook maar de helft wist van wat ik wist, zou je je
afvragen hoe iemand niet kon denken dat ik het meende.
Het einde van de twintigste eeuw en het begin van het nieuwe millenium had een soort
renaissance gezien in het publieke besef van het paranormale. Mediums, geesten, vampiers – noem
maar op. Mensen namen ze nog steeds niet serieus, maar alle dingen die de Wetenschap ons had
beloofd waren niet gebeurd. Ziekte was nog steeds een probleem. Verhongering was nog steeds een
probleem. Geweld en misdaad en oorlog waren nog steeds problemen. Ondanks de ontwikkeling van
technologie waren dingen gewoon niet veranderd op de manier waarop iedereen had gehoopt dat ze
zouden doen.
Wetenschap, de grootste religie van de twintigste eeuw, was een beetje bezoedeld door
beelden van ontploffende spaceshuttels, drugsbaby’s en een generatie van zelfingenomen
Amerikanen die hadden toegelaten dat de televisie hun kinderen opvoedde. Men was op zoek naar
iets – ik denk dat ze gewoon niet wisten wat. En hoewel ze opnieuw waren begonnen met hun ogen
te openen voor de wereld van magie en het esoterische die de hele tijd bij hen was geweest, dachten
ze nog steeds dat het een soort grap moest zijn.
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In ieder geval, het was een lange maand geweest. Een paar lange maanden, eigenlijk.
Mijn huur voor februari werd kon ik niet betalen tot de tiende van maart en het zag er naar uit dat
het nog langer zou zijn tot ik genoeg had verzameld voor deze maand.
Mijn enige klus was vorige week geweest, toen ik naar Branson, Missouri ging om een
mogelijk bezeten huis van een countryzanger te onderzoeken. Dat was het niet. Mijn client was niet
blij met dat antwoord en was zelfs nog minder blij toen ik voorstelde dat hij moest stoppen met
stimulerende middelen en proberen om wat beweging en slaap te krijgen, en dan te kijken of dat niet
meer hielp dan een exorcisme. Ik had reiskosten plus een uurloon gekregen en was weggegaan met
het gevoel dat ik het eerlijke, juiste en onpraktische ding had gedaan. Ik hoorde later dat hij een
gewetenloos medium had ingehuurd om een ceremonie met heel veel wierook en zwarte kaarsen23
te laten doen. Sommige mensen.
Ik las mijn paperback uit en gooide het in de doos met GEDAAN er op. Er lag een stapel van
gelezen en weggelegde paperbacks in een kartonnen doos aan de ene kant van mijn bureau, de
ruggen gebogen en de pagina’s gescheurd. Ik ben vreselijk hard voor mijn boeken. Ik bekeek de
stapel met ongelezen boeken, twijfelend over welke ik daarna zou beginnen, aangezien ik niet
bepaald echt werk te doen had, toen mijn telefoon overging.
Ik staarde er een beetje kribbig naar. Wij magiërs zijn geweldig in broeden.24
23
“…a lot of incense and black lights.” Lights and candles are similar but not the same thing. Still, I
chose to translate to candles because it is more occult, and also because the direct translations of
light, ‘lamp’ and ‘licht’, don’t fit well with the adjective ‘black’ in this context. Black lights exist, but
they are not very occult and probably not used in an attempt to drive out a spirit. Candles are used in
such a manner, especially black ones.
24
‘Brooding’ is another good example of an English word that’s difficult to translate because of its
layered connotations. On the surface it means being deep in thought, usually with negative emotions
attached, but it calls up all kinds of images for the reader, especially in connection with a wizard who
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Nadat de telefoon voor de derde keer was overgegaan, toen ik dacht dat ik niet een beetje té
gretig zou klinken, pakte ik de hoorn op en zei, “Dresden.”
“Oh. Is dit, ehm, Harry Dresden? De, eh, magiër?” Haar toon was verontschuldigend, alsof ze
ontzettend bang was dat ze me zou beledigen.
Nee, dacht ik. Het is Harry Dresden de, eh, agrariër.25 Harry de magiër zit hiernaast.
Het is het voorrecht van magiërs om humeurig te zijn. Het is echter niet het voorrecht van
freelance consultants die laat zijn met hun huur, dus in plaats van iets bijdehands te zeggen, zei ik
tegen de vrouw aan de telefoon, “Ja mevrouw. Waarmee kan ik u vandaag van dienst zijn?”
are, as the text suggest, famous for their brooding. The options in the target language were
‘piekeren’, ‘peinzen’, ‘tobben’ and ‘broeden. ‘Piekeren’ is more stress in thought than ‘brooding’ is
and ‘tobben’ is too much insecurity and doubts and not so much deep thinking, so those were out.
That left ‘peinzen’ and ‘broeden’, of which the latter was obviously the direct translation, only it has
the second meaning of breeding as well. There is no such problem with ‘peinzen’, but it is more
thinking about a specific problem than random thought. I therefore finally chose ‘broeden’, since it
should be clear enough that it is not meant as ‘breeding’ in this context.
25
"Oh. Is this, um, Harry Dresden? The, ah, wizard?” […] No, I thought. It's Harry Dresden the, ah,
lizard.”
The joke is rather weak and must stay that way in translation. There are several options that rhyme
with ‘magiër’: dalmatiër, ariër, agrariër, vegetariër, and ‘magistraat’ is also an option, not end rhyme
but alliteration. ‘Ariër’ is not an option because of the negative connotations to that word.
‘Magistraat’ sounds out of place and not really Harry’s type of humour, which is very dry. If we wish
to stay in the animal kingdom (wizard, lizard) then ‘dalmatiër’ would be the only option, but I opted
to go with ‘agrariër’ because then the ‘g’ is still present in the word so the sound rhymes as well as
the end.
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Fool Moon
In Fool Moon, a couple of excessively violent killings during a full moon get Harry employed by the
police again, and werewolves seem the obvious cause. But then Harry discovers that what he knows
of werewolves is quite different from the actual facts about the creatures. The second excerpt, from
this novel, shows Dresden in discussion with his spirit skull Bob about the many types of werewolves.
Far from what Harry – and the reader – know about werewolves, it appears that in this universe
there are five types, with each their own different characteristics, apart from the wolf part of course,
that is the same in most of them. The author here uses terms for werewolves in several different
languages for each type, and keeping them apart is difficult for Harry, let alone the reader who
knows less of magic. All but one type of these werewolves are not immune to silver and can be killed
quite easily. Conforming the supernatural with what is known and making the difference with what is
viewed as common knowledge about werewolves was the challenge in this excerpt, as well as
keeping true to Harry’s character when responding to all this new information. Since werewolves are
already fairly known in the real world and there is not really a case of an unknown fantasy culture in
this excerpt, combining two worlds and cultures is not really the case here. Still, this supernatural
world is clearly different from what people assume it to be, and the author uses that to stay original
in the ever-growing field of contemporary fantasy novels.
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Wolvenmaan26
Jim Butcher
“Oke. Ik kan aan deze beginnen. Hoeveel weet je over weerwolven, Bob?”
“Genoeg. Ik was in Frankrijk tijdens de Inquisitie.” Bob’s stem was droog (maar dat
was te verwachten, als je erover nadacht).
[...]
“Heel veel weerwolverie gaande dan?”
“Meen je dat?” zei Bob. “Het was dé plek voor weerwolven. We hadden alle soorten
weerwolven die je je kan bedenken. Hexenwolven, weerwolven, lykantropen en loup-garou ook nog
eens. Elke vorm van wolfachtige theriomorf die je je kan bedenken.
“Therro-watte?” zei ik.
“Theriomorf,” zei Bob. “Alles wat verandert van een menselijke in een dierlijke vorm.
Weerwolven zijn theriomorfen. Net zoals weerberen, weertijgers, weerbuffels...”
“Buffels?” vroeg ik.
“Zeker. Sommige Indiaanse sjamanen konden een buffel doen. Maar bijna iedereen doet
roofdieren en tot vrij recentelijk waren wolven het engste roofdier dat wie dan ook in Europa kon
bedenken.”
26
The original title is Fool Moon, which has a double meaning. The first is that ‘fool’ sounds like ‘full’,
and the book is about werewolves; a full moon plays a rather big role when it comes to werewolves.
The second is the meaning of the word ‘fool’, foolish, silly, crazy, in reference to the fact that people
tend to do the most idiotic things when the moon is full. Since there is no direct translation for Fool
Moon, the translator must once again choose between the two meanings: wolves, or foolishness. The
options I’ve considered are Volle Maan, Zotte Maan and Wolvenmaan. I finally chose Wolvenmaan
because Volle Maan is very cliché and the wolf still has the connotation of unpredictability as well as
werewolves.
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“Eh, oke,” zei ik. “En er is een verschil tussen typen weerwolven?”
“Precies,” bevestigde Bob. “Meestal hangt het er van af hoe je van menselijke naar
wolvenvorm gaat en hoeveel menselijkheid je weet vast te houden. Laat de koffie niet aanbranden.”
Ik draaide geërgerd de vlam onder beker met koffie naar beneden. “Weet ik, weet ik. Oke
dan. Hoe wordt je een wolf?”
“De klassieke weerwolf,” zei Bob, “is simpelweg een mens die magie gebruikt om zichzelf in
een wolf te veranderen.”
“Magie? Zoals een magiër?”
“Nee,” zei Bob. “Nou ja, soort van. Hij is zoiets als een magiër die alleen maar weet hoe hij
die ene spreuk moet doen, degene die hem in een wolf veranderd, en hoe hij er weer uit moet
komen. De meeste mensen die leren weerwolf te zijn er een tijdje niet heel erg goed erin, omdat ze
al hun menselijkheid behouden.”
“Wat bedoel je?”
“Nou,” zei Bob, “ze kunnen zichzelf veranderen naar de vorm van een wolf, maar het is
eigenlijk gewoon anatomie. Ze herschikken hun fysieke lichaam, maar hun geest blijft hetzelfde. Ze
kunnen nadenken en redeneren en hun persoonlijkheid verandert niet – maar ze hebben niet het
instinct en de reflexen van een wolf. Ze zijn gewend om zicht-gerichte tweevoeters te zijn, niet reukgerichte viervoeters. Ze zouden alles vanaf het begin moeten leren.”
“Waarom zou iemand zoiets doen?” zei ik. “Gewoon leren om in een wolf te veranderen,
bedoel ik.”
“je bent nooit een boer in middeleeuws Frankrijk geweest, Harry,” zei Bob. “Het leven was
hard voor die mensen. Nooit genoeg te eten, of onderdak, of medicijnen. Als je jezelf een warme
vacht en de mogelijkheid naar buiten te gaan om je eigen vlees te jagen kon geven, zou je de kans
ook met beide handen aanpakken.”
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“Oke, ik denk dat ik het heb,” zei ik. “Heb je zilveren kogels ofzo nodig? Verander je in een
weerwolf als je wordt gebeten?”
“Bah,” zei Bob. “Nee. Hollywood heeft dat gejat van de vampieren. En het zilveren-kogelsding is alleen in speciale gevallen. Weerwolven zijn net als gewone wolven. Je kan ze net zoals bij een
echte wolf met wapens verwonden.”
“Dat is goed nieuws,” zei ik, terwijl ik in het drankje roerde. “Wat voor andere soorten zijn
er?”
“Er is nog een versie van een weerwolf – als iemand magie gebruikt om je in een wolf te
veranderen.”
Ik keek even naar hem op. “Gedaanteverandering? Dat is illegaal, Bob. Het is een van de
Wetten van Magie. Als je iemand in een dier verandert, vernietigt het hun persoonlijkheid. Je kan
iemand niet transformeren zonder zijn geest te vernietigen. Het is zo goed als moord.”
“Yea. Handig he? Maar eigenlijk kunnen de meeste persoonlijkheden de transformatie
overleven. Voor even tenminste. Mensen met een heel erg sterke wil kunnen hun menselijke
herinneringen en persoonlijkheid voor enkele jaren vasthouden. Maar vroeg of laat zijn ze reddeloos
verloren en heb je enkel nog een wolf over.”
Ik wendde me van de drankjes af om iets in mijn notitieboekje te schrijven. “Oke. Hoe maak
je nog meer een weerwolf?”
“De meest gebruikelijke manier, toen in Frankrijk, was om een deal te maken met een
demon, een duivel of een krachtige magiër. Je neemt een wolvenhuidriem, doet hem om, zegt de
magische woorden en tadaaa, je bent een wolf. Een Hexenwolf.”
“Is dat niet net zoals de eerste?”
“Nee, helemaal niet. Je gebruikt niet je eigen magie om een wolf te worden. Je gebruikt dat
van iemand anders.”
Ik fronste. “Is dat niet als de tweede dan?”
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“Doe niet zo dom,” beriste Bob me. “Het is anders omdat je er een talisman voor gebruikt.
Soms is het een ring of een amulet, maar meestal is het een riem. De talisman fungeert als een anker
voor een geest van dierlijke woede. Akelige dingen van de slechte kant van de Nevernever27. De
geest wikkelt zich om een menselijke persoonlijkheid om ervoor te zorgen dat deze niet wordt
vernietigd.”
“Een soort van isolatie,” zei ik.
“Precies. Het zorgt ervoor dat je je eigen intellect en ratio behoudt, maar de geest
bestuurt alle andere dingen.”
Ik fronste. “Klinkt een beetje makkelijk.”
“Ja, tuurlijk,” zei Bob. “Het is heel erg makkelijk. En als je een talisman gebruikt om in
een wolf te veranderen, verlies je al je menselijke remmingen enzo en functioneer je alleen nog maar
op je onbewuste verlangens, met de talisman-geest in controle over de manier waarom het lichaam
beweegt. Het is heel efficient. Een gigantische wolf met menselijke intelligentie en dierlijke
woestheid.”
[...]
Bob zei niets terwijl ik de ingrediënten toevoegde en toen ik daarmee klaar was zei ik, “de
meeste mensen hebben niet de kracht om zo’n geest te controleren, denk ik. Het zou hun acties
beïnvloeden. Misschien ze zelfs beheersen. Hun bewustzijn onderdrukken.”
“Ja, en?”
“Dus het klinkt meer alsof je een monster schept.”
27
The ‘NeverNever’ is a setting-specific term, the name of the supernatural parallel world where
various supernatural creatures like spirits, demons and fae reside. The Dutch translation would be
‘NooitNooit’, but that sounds rather peculiar in Dutch. Because it is a setting-specific term there’s no
direct need to translate it and therefore I’m letting it stand.
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“Het is effectief,” zei Bob. Ik weet niets over het goede of het slechte ervan. Dat is iets waar
alleen stervelingen zich druk over maken.”
“Hoe noemde je deze smaak ook alweer?”
“Hexenwolf,” zei Bob met een sterk Duits accent. “Toverwolf. De Kerk had de oorlog
verklaard aan iedereen die ervoor koos een Hexenwolf te worden en gooide een groot aantal
mensen op de brandstapel.”
“Zilveren kogels?” vroeg ik. “Gebeten worden en in een weerwolf veranderen?”
“Wil je ophouden voor dat hele ‘gebeten worden en in een weerwolf veranderen’-ding,
Harry?” zei Bob. “Het werkt zo niet. Nooit niet. Of je zou binnen een paar jaar over de hele wereld
weerwolven hebben rondrennen.”
“Oke, oke,” verzuchtte ik. “En de zilveren kogels?”
“Die heb je niet nodig.”
“Oke,” zei ik en ging verder met het opschrijven van informatie om samen te voegen
in een verslag voor Murphy. “Hexenwolf. Begrepen. Nog meer?”
“Lykantropen,” zei Bob.
“Is dat geen psychologische aandoening?”
“Het kan ook een psychologische aandoening zijn,” zei Bob. “Maar het was eerst realiteit. Een
lykantroop is een natuurlijke geleider voor een geest van woede. Een lykantroop verandert in een
beest, maar enkel in zijn hoofd. De geest neemt het over. Het tast de manier waarop hij denkt en
doet aan, maakt hem aggressiever, sterker. Ze schijnen ook erg goed bestand tegen pijn,
verwondingen of ziektes te zijn; ze genezen vliegensvlug – dat soort dingen.”
“Maar ze veranderen niet daadwerkelijk in een wolf?”
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“Geef die jongen een snoepje28,” zei Bob. “Ze zijn gewoon mensen ook, maar ze zijn
ontzettend fel. Ooit gehoord van de Noorse berserkers? Die gasten waren lykantropen, denk ik. En ze
worden geboren, niet gemaakt.”
Ik roerde in het stimuleringsdrankje en zorgde ervoor dat het gelijkmatig sudderde. “En wat
was de laatste? Loep watte?”
“Loup-garou,” zei Bob. “Of dat was de naam die Etienne L’Enchanteur29 voor ze gebruikte,
voor hij op de brandstapel belandde. De loup-garou zijn de grootste monsters, Harry. Iemand heeft
ze vervloekt om een wolfachtige demon te worden en meestal tijdens de volle maan. Die persoon
moet ook heel krachtig zijn, zoals een grote machtige magiër, een demonenheer of een van de
Feekoninginnen. Wanneer de volle maan opkomt, veranderen ze in een monster, gaan los30 en
slachten alles en iedereen wat op hun pad komt af tot de maan ondergaat of de zon opkomt.
28
My first reaction at seeing the word ‘Kewpie’ in the source text was that it must be some kind of
American candy, so I naturalised it to ‘snoepje’. After a little research however it turned out a Kewpie
is a doll, which made little sense. I decided to keep the word ‘snoepje’ because the phrase “Geef die
jongen een popje” is not something that would be uttered in Dutch in response to someone giving a
good answer or something similar.
29
‘Etienne the Enchanter’ could be directly translated to ‘Etienne de Tovenaar.’ However, ‘Etienne de
Tovenaar’ sounds a bit like a character in a children’s book and not so much like a serious medieval
mage. Since Etienne is French and the Dutch, having once been conquered by the French which left
them with quite a few new French words in their language, are no strangers to French words in their
texts, I decided to make it ‘Etienne L’Enchanteur’.
30
The English phrase ‘killing spree’ can be translated into Dutch, such as “moordpartij” or
‘moordtocht’. However, ‘going on a killing spree’ appeared to be more difficult to fit correctly into a
Dutch sentence, because every option threw off the rhythm of the sentence. I therefore opted for
the verb ‘losgaan’, which still holds the connotation of someone losing it completely, while the
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Een plotselinge koude rilling ging door me heen, en ik huiverde. “Wat nog meer?”
“Bovennatuurlijke snelheid en kracht. Bovennatuurlijke wreedheid. Hun verwondingen
genezen bijna meteen, als ze al gewond raken. Ze zijn immuun tegen gif en tegen elk soort
toverkunst dat op de hersenen is gericht. Moordmachines.”
“Klinkt geweldig. Ik neem aan dat dit niet al te vaak is gebeurd? Ik had er dan tot nu
toe wel eens iets van gehoord.”
“Precies,” zei Bob. “Niet vaak. Meestal weet de arme vervloekte drommel genoeg om zichzelf
ergens op te sluiten, of om de wildernis in te gaan. De laatste grote loup-garou rooftocht gebeurde in
de omgeving van Gevaudan, Frankrijk, in de zestiende eeuw. Meer dan tweehonderd mensen
werden gedood in iets meer dan een jaar.”
“Jezus Christus,” zei ik. “Hoe hebben ze het tegengehouden?”
“Ze hebben het gedood,” zei Bob. “Dit is waar de zilveren kogels eindelijk van pas komen,
Harry. Enkel een zilveren wapen kan een loup-garou verwonden, en dat niet alleen, het zilver moet
geërfd zijn van een familielid. Geërfde zilveren kogels.”
“Echt waar? Waarom zou dat werken en niet normaal zilver?”
“Ik maak de wetten van de magie niet, Harry. Ik weet alleen wat ze zijn en heb er een idee
van wanneer ze veranderen. Die is niet veranderd. Ik denk dat het misschien iets te maken het met
het element van opoffering.”
Discussing Storm Front and Fool Moon
With these two excerpts, the most of the attention in translating went to keeping the setting
straight, keeping the characters true to nature, think of the irrealia and focus especially on wordplay.
killing-part is being described in the rest of the sentence as it talks about slaughtering everyone in
sight.
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The author, Jim Butcher, gives the impression that he likes to play with language, making puns and
jokes, but also expressing cynicism, sarcasm, emotion, by carefully choosing the words to fit with the
expression of such a feeling in a written medium. This was one of the main difficulties with these
excerpts, to achieve the same feeling in the target language. Harry Dresden is introduced as a cynical
character with a dry sense of humour, which is expressed in the way he responds to the mailman
(“Subtle and quick to anger?”/ "Not so subtle" (Butcher, 2) and his anonymous caller ("Oh. Is this,
um, Harry Dresden? The, ah, wizard?” […] No, I thought. It's Harry Dresden the, ah, lizard” (Butcher,
4). The first few pages of the first novel are very much a character setting, introducing the reader to
the protagonist as well as to his writing style. Keeping that consistent and believable is one of the
challenges of the book, especially since it is all from a first person point of view; the reader is in the
protagonist’s head. Since this will be the case through the entire novel, the first impression is fairly
vital, which was one of the main concerns in the first excerpt. In the second excerpt the most
challenges were presented by the interaction between Harry and his magic skull Bob, and the subject
of their dialogue. There was one case of irrealia, the “NeverNever”, which would suffer in translation,
and all the other problematic areas were once again because of wording and wordplay. With first
person point of view, the translator should keep in mind that every word must come from the same
character, so keeping things consistent might be more difficult with such novels. The short sentences
and the humoristic take on things by the protagonist are vital to take into account while translating.
As for believability of the setting, it can be presumed that if the character is believable in translation,
so could the setting be, for the reader views the setting through the protagonist’s eyes.
Translating contemporary fantasy is a little bit of both translating contemporary fiction and
translating fantasy. Some novels are chiefly set in the supernatural culture within the real world,
some alternate between the two and some are predominantly contemporary with just a few fantasy
elements mixed in. When translating contemporary fantasy the translator has to take both the
modern and the fantasy into account, and make sure that they clash where the author intends them
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to clash and mingle where the author intends them to mingle through a clever use of words. While
having a little bit of both settings, all in all translating contemporary fantasy does not really differ
from translating normal fantasy. In both types you have to take both existing and original cultures
into account that live side by side or mingle, in both types there may be occurrences of genre-specific
realia, in both types the supernatural elements may be either dominant or subtle, and in both types
the willing suspension of disbelief from the reader has to be maintained in the translation. The only
way contemporary fantasy differs from normal fantasy is that it is grounded in reality instead of
imagination, but reality may be just as twisted as imagination sometimes is.
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Conclusion
The purpose of this thesis was to discover and describe some of the common points of interest in
translating fantasy for adults, as the author was quick to discover that very few literary articles
existed concerning the subject; near all articles about translating fantasy was focussed on doing so in
children’s literature, even though adult fantasy fiction is a very large portion of the genre. Translating
fantasy is unlike translating contemporary fiction because the translator has to take original additions
into account while translating; additions to the setting, culture, and genre-specific irrealia. Especially
with such original additions, continuance is very important, so the translator has to read the source
text very carefully to keep everything internally consistent and logical, for the sake of the reader’s
willing suspense of disbelief. The author sometimes relies heavily on the ability to imagine the new
surroundings in describing them, so the translator has to make sure to be just as descriptive in the
target text without drastically altering the content. These things are not unique to translating a
fantasy novel, but may be doubly so important because what is being described may be something
that has sprouted from the author’s imagination, and the description they wrote is the only thing the
reader has to go on when it comes to that person, place or object.
The most important thing that sets a fantasy novel apart is the setting; a fantasy novel is
most often only named such because the story plays in an original setting, a magical world created by
the author that has little to no connection to earth. In this setting, a story of every type of genre,
detectives, horror, thrillers, romance, everything is possible; the author has only chosen to set the
story against a background of his own imagination. The setting of a fantasy novel often relies on its
culture to make it internally consistent: the fantasy culture may be, or may be related to, existing
historic cultures, may be a mix of several cultures, may be an existing culture with new elements or
may be a wholly new culture, though the last one is rare. The next important thing that sets a fantasy
novel apart is magic. A fantasy novel will not be called such without magical beasts and races,
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magical objects, magical or supernatural elements. Fantasy is associated with wizards, dragons,
mythology, and each of these have magic.
While translating a fantasy novel, the translator has to take several things into account. First,
the way the setting interacts with the story; the setting may be a simple backdrop or may have a
tangible role in the plot. Second, the way the characters interact with the setting; a setting is only as
real as the characters make it to be, so the translator needs to make sure there are no jarring
elements in the translation. Third, the underlying meanings of many of the names in a fantasy novel;
most names in fantasy literature refer to the character’s background, personality, looks, even intent.
Translating such underlying meanings is difficult, but should be attempted with every name that
requires translation. Fourth, the whole is as good as the sum of its parts. All these things are
separately important, but the most important is that they all work together to form the novel in
translation.
Translating contemporary fantasy is not all that different from translating normal fantasy.
While the background setting is reality with a twist, still things like names, magic and cultural
differences are an important part of the story, so all the things that apply to translating fantasy also
apply to its sub-genre of contemporary fantasy. In the five excerpts translated for the purpose of
putting the investigated theory into practice, one of the translation problems that most often came
to the fore was the introduction of genre-specific irrealia by the author. Since such irrealia are
significant for the story and story dynamics, translating them requires some thought from the
translator. Another common problem in these excerpts was the style used by the author to create a
setting, and to have the characters interact with it. Especially for the first person novels (A Hunger
Like Fire, The Dresden Files), where the reader perceives the setting through the protagonist’s eyes,
the description of the scene and setting is doubly important, since it also gives insight into the
protagonist’s mind. The character names in these excerpts also posed a problem, especially when
their original form was paramount to the scene dynamics, as was the case with Easter in American
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Gods. Lastly, consolidating the supernatural occurrences with the contemporary setting was also one
of the translation challenges in these excerpts. It can be concluded that in these five excerpts, the
theory as discussed in the earlier chapters of this thesis applied.
In short, while translating fantasy novels for adults, the translator has to take a few key
differences from contemporary fiction into account, but aside from those, translating fantasy is much
like translating other types of fiction. Tension, dialogue, description, humour, names, all these things
may pose difficulties for a translator, and all can be found in fantasy as well as in most types of
fiction. The key is to see them in perspective with the view of the author when he decided to set his
story against an imaginary background and work from there.
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Appendix A – Original Source Texts
A Hunger Like Fire
Greg Stolze
Bella leans back a little and raises her nose defensively. She’s getting ready to defend her
position when the sound of a gong cascades through the room.
Prince Maxwell has arrived.
“All stand!”
That’s not Maxwell’s voice, of course, it’s a guy named Garret McLean, and he’s impossible to
ignore. It’s as if his voice shudders through us, the way his hammer shivered the gong. The younger
vampires start to their feet like sentries caught slouching. The older ones, Solomon Birch in
particular, rise with more gravitas, projecting a fine subtext of I don’t have to stand, but I’m choosing
to stand.
Garret processes in, stately and serious, holding aloft a plain mahogany box about four feet
long, six inches deep and six wide. He’s making a gradual beeline towards the empty chair at the
bottom of the amphitheater. It’s big, baroque and old. He’s about halfway there when Maxwell
enters behind him.
The Prince of Chicago is not really tall – five-nine, maybe five-foot-ten. About my height.
Though if he really was born around 1800, he must have been a giant in his day. He’s stocky, dressed
in a conservative Phat Farm sweater, the kind Bill Clinton wears. He has high, prominent cheekbones
and a calm, genial appearance. Tonight, he’s grandpa getting ready to cut the turkey at Thanksgiving.
My “sire.”
By the time he reaches the chair, McLean has opened the box and produced (with suitable
small flourishes) a shiny metal sword. Maxwell sits on the throne and McLean hands him the
weapon. Maxwell unsheathes it and lays the naked blade across his knees, and it’s hard to explain his
expression when he does this. It’s ambiguous, oblique. You can read it as an absolute commitment to
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the cause that all this pomp represents. You can read it as straight-faced irony, a double bladed
visage that mocks this pretentious formality by perfecting it. You can read it as a constrained tyranny,
a reined-in contempt for the ceremony that says, “I don’t need this ridiculous metal stick to enforce
my will.”
His expression alters, and for a moment I’m certain that he winked at me. Then I see the
movements, the shifts of posture through the gallery and I realize just how many of us had the same
thought.
The ones up front, the elders – Solomon, Scratch, Rowen – they aren’t convinced. The middle
range, like Bella, they shake it off after a moment. But the youngsters, the fledglings, those of us
farthest away, up by the free drinks… most of us fall for it.
I glance at the unbound. Raphael looks puzzled. Ambrose is frowning. I can’t tell if they were
fooled or not.
“We are the Damned,” Maxwell begins, “And yet we are not so fallen that we cannot make
more of ourselves than we are. We are, by inclination, solitary hunters, but we find ourselves tonight
in peaceful company. We carry in every drop of out blood a polluting cruelty… but steeped in hunger
though we may be, humanity remains. Cold eyes yet seek beauty,” he says, gesturing about the hall,
and he’s right. Despite its eeriness or maybe because of it, the austere display is thrilling. “A stilled
heart still craves companionship. Thus, Elysium. Thus, our court. Thus, our covenants. All our higher
impulses – all that raises us above brute predation – all the good that lingers, is displayed here
tonight.”
He says something like this every time, some corny opening remark, but from him, it’s not
trite. From him, it’s a ray of hope in the red darkness. Tonight, as every night, the crowd applauds.
“My dear fellow Kindred, please – be seated. We have with us tonight two visitors,” he says,
gesturing to the two strangers. As I’m sure he intended, everyone else looks at them. Raphael stands
up straight and I feel a trickle of regard for him, he’s Pushing Out but it’s weak and artificial, spread
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too thin over souls too jaded. He’s trying to warm our gazes, but it’s like lighting a match in a locker
full of frozen meat.
Ambrose just acts resigned.
“May I introduce our guests for the evening?” He gives them a tight, tolerating smile. “I know
you may find the formality of our gatherings somewhat stifling, but please. Humor us with your
names, and a recitation of your lineage.“
Raphael meets his gaze. “I’m Raphael Ladue, and my sire was Old John.”
I have no idea who the hell Old John is, but apparently others do. Many pale faces
crane around to look at him with new interest, and most of the interested parties are sitting up front,
where the power is. Rowen doesn’t turn, but everyone else in the front row does, expressions all
carefully blank. A few rows back, there are Kindred who can’t repress fear.
“My, my,” Maxwell says. “A notorious lineage indeed. And your companion?”
“I’m Ambrose Masterson and I was Embraced by the Unholy.”
That gets everyone looking. All but the newest of us know who the Unholy is. It’s like saying
your dad is the boogeyman.
“Bullshit,” says a voice from the middle, a man in an impeccably beautiful suit with skin like
alabaster.
Ambrose bares his fangs, and we can all see that his teeth are inhuman, needle-sharp and
unnaturally long. Not like Scratch, though. Where Scratch’s mouth is a wreck, a mistake of nature.
This mouth looks carefully evolved to pierce and shred.
“Yes,” the Prince says. “I remember you now. From the DNC.” Ambrose narrows his eyes and
nods.
(Did Maxwell say “D & C” – meaning an abortion? Or was it “DNC,” the Democratic National
Convention with the riots? Or is it something else entirely?)
Maxwell goes on. “Despite their… well-known heritage, our guests have opted to ignore our
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hospitality in the past. Nonetheless, it is my hope that you will all join me in extending them
courteous welcome tonight.
“Our guests share with us a common problem. We are both concerned with the actions of
one Bruce Miner. Garret, if you’d be so good…? I’m quite helpless when it comes to programming
VCRs.” The line gets a laugh.
While he was talking, Garret wheeled in a big screen TV, which he now pokes at until a
recorded news show comes on. The story is about a man in Cicero resisting arrest and fleeing the
cops, and in the middle of it they show grainy cop-cam footage of a burly guy in filthy coveralls
struggling with a policeman. The two of them lurch out of the camera’s coverage for a moment, and
then the officer comes flying across the hood of the car. It’s dramatic, the more so for being silent.
The somber news anchor fills in what I already heard – wife and daughter bled out, snapped
handcuffs, et cetera.
They juxtapose a still frame from the video and what’s obviously a cropped snapshot from
some neighbor’s scrapbook. The former is basically just a grey blur, pretty much what we all see in
the mirror whenever we bother to look. The latter is a depressingly average white guy with bad hair.
When the segment ends, there’s a silent moment.
“Comments?” Maxwell says at last.
Scratch stands. “Ice him,” he says. “He’s from my clan, he shares my curse and still I say ice
him.”
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American Gods
Neil Gaiman
There was a woman sitting on the grass, under a tree, with a paper tablecloth spread in front
of her, and a variety of Tupperware dishes on the cloth.
She was – not fat, no, far from fat: what she was, a word that Shadow had never had cause to
use until now, was curvaceous. Her hair was so fair that it was white, the kind of platinum blonde
tresses that should have belonged to a long-dead movie starlet, her lips were painted crimson, and
she looked to be somewhere between twenty-five and fifty.
As they reached her she was selecting from a plate of devilled eggs. She looked up as
Wednesday approached her, and put down the egg she had chosen, and wiped her hand. ‘Hello, you
old fraud,’ she said, but she smiled as she said it, and Wednesday bowed low, took her hand and
raised it to his lips.
He said, ‘You look divine.’
‘How the hell else should I look?’ she demanded, sweetly. Anyway, you’re a liar. New Orleans
was such a mistake – I put on, what, thirty pounds there? I swear. I knew I had to leave when I
started to waddle. The tops of my thighs rub together when I walk now, can you believe that?’ This
last was addressed to Shadow. He had no idea what to say in reply, and felt a hot flush suffuse his
face. The woman laughed delightedly. ‘He’s blushing! Wednesday my sweet, you brought me a
blusher. How perfectly wonderful of you. What’s he called?’
‘This is Shadow,’ said Wednesday. He seemed to be enjoying Shadow’s discomfort. Shadow,
say hello to Easter.’
[…]
She drained a paper cup of something that looked like white wine, and then she got to her
feet. ‘Shadow’s a good name,’ she said. ‘I want a Mochaccino. Come on.’
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She began to walk away. ‘What about the food?’ asked Wednesday. ‘You can’t just
leave it here.’
She smiled at him, and pointed to the girl sitting by the dog, and then extended her
arms to take in the Haight and the world. ‘Let it feed them,’ she said, and she walked, with
Wednesday and Shadow trailing behind her.
‘Remember,’ she said to Wednesday as they walked. ‘I’m rich. I’m doing just peachy. Why
should I help you?’
‘You’re one of us,’ he said. ‘You’re as forgotten and as unloved and unremembered as any of
us. It’s pretty clear whose side you should be on.’
They reached a sidewalk coffee house, went inside, sat down. There was only one waitress,
who wore her eyebrow ring as a mark of caste, and a woman making coffee behind the counter. The
waitress advanced upon them, smiling automatically, sat them down, took their orders.
Easter put her slim hand on the back of Wednesday’s square gray hand. ‘I’m telling you,’ she
said, ‘I’m doing fine. On my festival days they till feast on eggs and rabbits, on candy and on flesh, to
represent rebirth and copulation. They wear flowers in their bonnets and they give each other
flowers. They do it in my name. More and more of them every year. In my name, old wolf.’
‘And you wax fat and affluent on their worship and their love?’ he said, dryly.
‘Don’t be an asshole.’ Suddenly she sounded very tired. She sipped her Mochaccino.
‘Serious question, m’dear. Certainly I would agree that millions upon millions of them give
each other tokens in your name, and that they still practice the rites of your festival, even down to
hunting for hidden eggs. But how many of them know who you are? Eh? Excuse me miss?’ This to
their waitress.
She said, ‘You need another espresso?’
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‘No, my dear. I was just wondering if you could solve a little argument we were having over
here. My friend and I were disagreeing over what the word “Easter” means. Would you happen to
know?’
The girl stared at him as if green toads had begun to push their way between his lips. Then
she said, ‘I don’t know about any of that Christian stuff. I’m a pagan.’
The woman behind the counter said, ‘I think it’s Latin or something for “Christ has Risen”
maybe.’
‘Really?’ said Wednesday.
‘Yeah, sure,’ said the woman. ‘Easter. Just like the sun rises in the east, you know.’
‘The risen son. Of course – a most logical supposition.’ The woman smiled and returned to
her coffee grinder. Wednesday looked up at their waitress. ‘I think I shall have another espresso, if
you do not mind. And tell me, as a pagan, who do you worship?’
‘Worship?’
‘That’s right. I imagine you must have a pretty wide-open field. So to whom do you set up
your household altar? To whom do you bow down? To whom do you pray at dawn and at dusk?’
Her lips described several shapes without saying anything before she said, ‘The female
principle. It’s an empowerment thing. You know.’
‘Indeed. And this female principle of yours. Does she have a name?’
‘She’s the goddess within us all,’ said the girl with the eyebrow ring, color rising to her cheek.
‘She doesn’t need a name.’
‘Ah,’ said Wednesday, with a wide monkey grin, ‘so do you have mighty bacchanals in her
honor? Do you drink blood wine under the full moon, while scarlet candles burn in silver candle
holders? Do you step naked into the sea-foam, chanting ecstatically to your nameless goddess while
the waves lick at your legs, lapping your thighs like the tongues of a thousand leopards?’
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‘You’re making fun of me,’ she said. ‘We don’t do any of that stuff you were saying.’ She took
a deep breath. Shadow suspected she was counting to ten. ‘Any more coffees here? Another
Mochaccino for you ma’am?’ her smile was a lot like the one she had greeted them with when they
had entered.
They shook their heads, and the waitress turned to greet another customer.’
‘There,’ said Wednesday, ‘is one who “does not have the faith and will not have the fun”.
Chesterton. Pagan indeed. So. Shall we go out onto the street, Easter my dear, and repeat the
exercise? Find out how many passers-by know that their Easter festical takes its name from Eostre of
the Dawn? Let’s see – I have it. We shall ask a hundred people. For every one that knows the truth,
you may cut off one of my fingers, and when I run out of them,m toes; for every twenty who don’t
know you spend a night making love to me. And the odds are certainly in your favor here - this is San
Francisco, after all. There are heathens and pagans and Wiccans aplenty on these precipitous
streets.’
Her green eyes looked at Wednesday. They were, Shadow decided, the exact same color as a
leaf in spring with the sun shining through it. She said nothing.
‘We could try it,’ continued Wednesday. ‘But I would end up with ten fingers, ten toes, and
five nights in your bed. So don’t tell me they worship you and keep your festival day. They mouth
your name, but it has no meaning to them. Nothing at all.’
Tears stood out in her eyes. ‘I know that,’ she said, quietly. ‘I’m not a fool.’
‘No,’ said Wednesday. ‘You’re not.’
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Good Omens
Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
You wouldn’t have known it as the same car. There was scarcely an inch of it undented. Both front
lights were smashed. The hubcaps were long gone. It looked like the veteran of a hundred demolition
derbies.
The pavements had been bad. The pedestrian underpass had been worse. The worst bit had
been crossing the river Thames. At least he’d had the foresight to roll up all the windows.
Still he was here now.
In a few hundred yards he’d be on the M40; a fairly clear run up to Oxfordshire. There was
only one snag: once more between Crowley and the open road was the M25. A screaming, glowing
ribbon of pain and dark light31. Odegra. Nothing could cross it and survive.
Nothing mortal, anyway. And he wasn’t sure what it would do to a demon. It couldn’t kill
him, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.
There was a police roadblock in front of the flyover before him. Burnt-out wrecks – some still
burning – testified to the fate of previous cars that had to drive across the flyover above the dark
road.
The police did not look happy.
Crowley shifted down into second gear, and gunned the accelerator.
He went through the roadblock at sixty. That was the easy bit.
31
Not actually an oxymoron. It’s the colour past ultra-violet. The technical term for it is infra-black. It
can be seen quite easily under experimental conditions. To perform the experiment simply select a
healthy brick wall, with a good runup, and, lowering your head, charge.
The colour that flashes in bursts behind your eyes, behind the pain, just before you die, is
infra-black.
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Cases of spontaneous human combustion are on record all over the world. One minute
someone’s quite happily chugging along with their life; the next there’s a sad photograph of a pile of
ashes and a lonely and mysteriously uncharred foot or hand. Cases of spontaneous vehicular
combustion are less well documented.
Whatever the statistics were, they had just gone up by one.
The leather seatcovers began to smoke. Staring ahead of him, Crowley fumbled left-handed
on the passenger seat for Agnes Nutter’s Nice and Accurate Prophecies, moved it to the safety of his
lap. He wished she’d prophecied this32.
Then the flames engulfed the car.
He had to keep driving.
On the other side of the flyover was a further police roadblock, to prevent the passage of
cars trying to come into London. They were laughing about a story that had just come over the radio,
that a motorbike cop on the M6 had flagged down a stolen police car, only to discover the driver to
be a large octopus.
Some police forces would believe anything. Not the Metropolitan police, though. The Met
was the hardest, most cynically pragmatic , most stubbornly down-to-earth police force in Britain.
It would take a lot to faze a copper from the Met.
It would take, for example, a huge, battered car that was nothing more nor less than a
fireball, a blazing, roaring, twisted metal lemon from Hell, driven by a grinning lunatic in sunglasses,
32
She had. It read:
A street of light will screem, the black chariot of the Serpente will flayme, and a Queene wille
sing quickfilveres songes no moar.
Most of the family had gone along with Gelatly Device, who wrote a brief monograph in the
1830s explaining it as a metaphor for the banishment of Weishaupt’s Illuminati from Bavaria in 1785.
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sitting amid the flames, trailing thick black smoke, coming straight at them through the lashing rain
and the wind at eighty miles per hour.
That would do it every time.
~*~
The quarry was the calm centre of a stormy world.
Thunder didn’t just rumble overhead, it tore the air in half.
‘I’ve got some more friends coming,’ Adam repeated. ‘They’ll be here soon, and then we can
really get started.’
Dog started to howl. It was no longer the siren howl of a lone wolf but the weird oscillations
of a small dog in deep trouble.
Pepper had been sitting staring at her knees.
There seemed to be something on her mind.
Finally she looked up and stared Adam in the blank grey eyes.
‘What bit’re you going to have, Adam?’ she said.
The storm was replaced by a sudden, ringing silence.
‘What?’ said Adam.
‘Well, you divided up the world, right, and we’ve all of us got to have a bit – what bit’re you
going to have?’
The silence sang like a harp, high and thin.
‘Yeah,’ said Brian. ‘You never told us what bit you’re having.’
‘Pepper’s right,’ said Wensleydale. ‘Don’t seem to me there’s much left, if we’ve got to have
all these countries.’
Adam’s mouth opened and shut.
‘What?’ he said.
‘What bit’s yours, Adam?’ Pepper said.
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Adam stared at her. Dog had stopped howling and had fixed his master with an intent,
thoughtful mongrel stare.
‘M-me?’ he said.
The silence went on and on, one note that could drown out the noises of the world.
‘But I’ll have Tadfield,’ said Adam.
They stared at him.
‘An’, an’ Lower Tadfield, and Norton, and Norton Woods—’
They still stared.
Adam’s gaze dragged itself across their faces.
‘They’re all I’ve ever wanted,’ said Adam.
They shook their heads.
‘I can have ‘em if I want,’ said Adam, his voice tinged with sullen defiance and his defiance
edged with sudden doubt. ‘I can make them better, too. Better trees to climb, better ponds, better…’
His voice trailed off.
‘You can’t,’ said Wensleydale flatly. ‘They’re not like America and those places. They’re really
real. Anyway, they belong to all of us. They’re ours.’
‘And you couldn’t make ‘em better,’ said Brian.
‘Anyway, even if you did we’d all know,’ said Pepper.
‘Oh, if that’s all that’s worryin’ you, don’t you worry,’ said Adam airily, ‘’cos I could make you
all just do whatever I wanted—’
He stopped, his ears listening in horror to the words his mouth was speaking. The Them were
backing away.
Dog put his paws over his head.
Adam’s face looked like an impersonation of the collapse of empire.
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‘No,’ he said hoarsely. ‘No. Come back! I command you!’
They froze in mid-dash.
Adam stared.
‘No, I din’t mean it—’ he began. ‘You’re my friends—’
His body jerked. His head was thrown back. He raised his arms and pounded the skies with
his fists.
His face twisted. The chalk floor cracked under his trainers.
Adam opened his mouth and screamed. It was a sound that a merely mortal throat should
not have been able to utter; it wound out of the quarry, mingled with the storm, caused the clouds
to curdle into new and unpleasant shapes.
It went on and on.
It resounded around the universe, which is a good deal smaller than physicists would believe.
It rattled the celestial spheres.
It spoke of loss, and it did not stop for a very long time.
And then it did.
Something drained away.
Adam’s head tilted down again. His eyes opened.
Whatever had been standing in the old quarry before, Adam Young was standing there now.
A more knowledgeable Adam Young, but Adam Young nevertheless. Possibly more of Adam Young
than there had ever been before.
The ghastly silence in the quarry was replaced by a more familiar, comfortable silence, the
mere and simple absence of noise.
The freed Them cowered against the chalk cliff, their eyes fixed on him.
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‘It’s all right,’ said Adam quietly. ‘Pepper? Wensley? Brian? Come back here. It’s all right. It’s
all right. I know everything now. And you’ve got to help me. Otherwise it’s all goin’ to happen. It’s
really all goin’ to happen. It’s all goin’ to happen, if we don’t do somethin’.’
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Storm Front
Jim Butcher
Chapter One
I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual. He didn't
sound right. His footsteps fell more heavily, jauntily, and he whistled. A new guy. He whistled his way
to my office door, then fell silent for a moment. Then he laughed.
Then he knocked.
I winced. My mail comes through the mail slot unless it's registered. I get a really limited
selection of registered mail, and it's never good news. I got up out of my office chair and opened the
door.
The new mailman, who looked like a basketball with arms and legs and a sunburned, balding
head, was chuckling at the sign on the door glass.
He glanced at me and hooked a thumb toward the sign. "You're kidding, right?"
I read the sign (people change it occasionally), and shook my head. "No, I'm serious. Can I
have my mail, please."
"So, uh. Like parties, shows, stuff like that?" He looked past me, as though he expected to see
a white tiger, or possibly some skimpily clad assistants prancing around my one-room office.
I sighed, not in the mood to get mocked again, and reached for the mail he held in his hand.
"No, not like that. I don't do parties."
He held on to it, his head tilted curiously. "So what? Some kinda fortune-teller? Cards and
crystal balls and things?"
"No," I told him. "I'm not a psychic." I tugged at the mail.
He held on to it. "What are you, then?"
"What's the sign on the door say?"
"It says 'Harry Dresden. Wizard.' "
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"That's me," I confirmed.
"An actual wizard?" he asked, grinning, as though I should let him in on the joke. "Spells and
potions? Demons and incantations? Subtle and quick to anger?"
"Not so subtle." I jerked the mail out of his hand and looked pointedly at his clipboard. "Can I
sign for my mail please."
The new mailman's grin vanished, replaced with a scowl. He passed over the clipboard to let me sign
for the mail (another late notice from my landlord), and said, "You're a nut. That's what you are." He
took his clipboard back, and said, "You have a nice day, sir."
I watched him go.
"Typical," I muttered, and shut the door.
My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. I'm a
wizard. I work out of an office in midtown Chicago. As far as I know, I'm the only openly practicing
professional wizard in the country. You can find me in the yellow pages, under "Wizards." Believe it
or not, I'm the only one there. My ad looks like this:
HARRY DRESDEN—WIZARD
Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment
You'd be surprised how many people call just to ask me if I'm serious. But then, if you'd seen
the things I'd seen, if you knew half of what I knew, you'd wonder how anyone could not think I was
serious.
The end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the new millennium had seen something
of a renaissance in the public awareness of the paranormal. Psychics, haunts, vampires—you name it.
People still didn't take them seriously, but all the things Science had promised us hadn't come to
pass. Disease was still a problem. Starvation was still a problem. Violence and crime and war were
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still problems. In spite of the advance of technology, things just hadn't changed the way everyone
had hoped and thought they would.
Science, the largest religion of the twentieth century, had become somewhat tarnished by
images of exploding space shuttles, crack babies, and a generation of complacent Americans who
had allowed the television to raise their children. People were looking for something—I think they
just didn't know what. And even though they were once again starting to open their eyes to the
world of magic and the arcane that had been with them all the while, they still thought I must be
some kind of joke.
Anyway, it had been a slow month. A slow pair of months, actually. My rent from February
didn't get paid until the tenth of March, and it was looking like it might be even longer until I got
caught up for this month.
My only job had been the previous week, when I'd gone down to Branson, Missouri, to
investigate a country singer's possibly haunted house. It hadn't been. My client hadn't been happy
with that answer, and had been even less happy when I suggested he lay off of any intoxicating
substances and try to get some exercise and sleep, and see if that didn't help things more than an
exorcism. I'd gotten travel expenses plus an hour's pay, and gone away feeling I had done the honest,
righteous, and impractical thing. I heard later that he'd hired a shyster psychic to come
in and perform a ceremony with a lot of incense and black lights. Some people.
I finished up my paperback and tossed it into the DONE box. There was a pile of read and
discarded paperbacks in a cardboard box on one side of my desk, the spines bent and the pages
mangled. I'm terribly hard on books. I was eyeing the pile of unread books, considering which to start
next, given that I had no real work to do, when my phone rang.
I stared at it in a somewhat surly fashion. We wizards are terrific at brooding. After the third
ring, when I thought I wouldn't sound a little too eager, I picked up the receiver and said,
"Dresden."
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"Oh. Is this, um, Harry Dresden? The, ah, wizard?" Her tone was apologetic, as though she
were terribly afraid she would be insulting me.
No, I thought. It's Harry Dresden the, ah, lizard. Harry the wizard is one door down.
It is the prerogative of wizards to be grumpy. It is not, however, the prerogative of freelance
consultants who are late on their rent, so instead of saying something smart, I told the woman on the
phone, "Yes, ma'am. How can I help you today?"
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Fool Moon
Jim Butcher
"Fine. I can get started on these. How much do you know about werewolves, Bob?"
"Plenty. I was in France during the Inquisition." Bob's voice was dry (but that is to be
expected, considering).
[…] "Lot of werewolfery going on then?"
"Are you kidding?" Bob said. "It was werewolf central. We had every kind of werewolf you
could think of. Hexenwolves, werewolves, lycanthropes, and loup-garou to boot. Every kind of lupine
theriomorph you could think of."
"Therro-what?" I said.
"Theriomorph," Bob said. "Anything that shape-shifts from a human being into an animal
form. Werewolves are theriomorphs. So are werebears, weretigers, werebuffaloes…"
"Buffaloes?" I asked.
"Sure. Some Native American shamans could do a buffalo. But almost everyone does
predators, and until pretty recently, wolves were the scariest predator anyone around Europe could
think of."
"Uh, okay," I said. "And there's a difference between types of werewolves?"
"Right," Bob confirmed. "Mostly it depends on how you go from human form to wolf form,
and how much of your humanity you retain. Don't burn the coffee."
I turned down the flame beneath the beaker of coffee, annoyed. "I know, I know. Okay, then.
How do you get to be a wolf?"
"The classic werewolf," Bob said, "is simply a human being who uses magic to shift himself
into a wolf."
"Magic? Like a wizard?"
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"No," Bob said. "Well. Sort of. He's like a wizard who only knows how to cast the one spell,
the one to turn him into a wolf, and knows how to get back out of it again. Most people who learn to
be werewolves aren't very good at it for a while, because they keep all of their own humanity."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," Bob said, "they can reshape themselves into the form of a wolf, but it's pretty much
just topology. They rearrange their physical body, but their mind remains the same. They can think
and reason, and their personality doesn't change—but they don't have a wolf's instincts or reflexes.
They're used to being sight-oriented bipeds, not smell-oriented quadrupeds. They would have to
learn everything from scratch."
"Why would someone do something like that?" I said. "Just learn to turn into a wolf, I mean."
"You've never been a peasant in medieval France, Harry," Bob said. "Life was hard for those
people. Never enough food, shelter, medicine. If you could give yourself a fur coat and the ability to
go out and hunt your own meat, you would have jumped at the chance, too."
"Okay, I think I've got it," I said. "Do you need silver bullets or anything? Do you turn into a
werewolf if you get bitten?"
"Bah," Bob said. "No. Hollywood stole that from vampires. And the silver-bullet thing is only
in special cases. Werewolves are just like regular wolves. You can hurt them with weapons just like
you can a real wolf."
"That's good news," I said, stirring the potion. "What other kinds are there?"
"There's another version of a werewolf—when someone else uses magic to change you into
a wolf."
I glanced up at him. "Transmogrification? That's illegal, Bob. It's one of the Laws of Magic. If
you transform someone into an animal, it destroys their personality. You can't transform someone
else without wiping out their mind. It's practically murder."
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"Yeah. Neat, huh? But actually, most personalities can survive the transformation. For a little
while at least. Really strong wills might manage to keep their human memories and personality
locked away for several years. But sooner or later, they're irretrievably gone, and you're left with
nothing but a wolf."
I turned from the potions to scribble in my notebook. "Okay. What else makes a werewolf?"
"The most common way, back in France, was to make a deal with a demon or a devil or a
powerful sorcerer. You get a wolf-hide belt, put it on, say the magic words, and whammy, you're a
wolf. A Hexenwolf."
"Isn't that just like the first kind?"
"No, not at all. You don't use your own magic to become a wolf. You use someone else's."
I frowned. "Isn't that the second kind, then?"
"Stop being obtuse," Bob chided me. "It's different because you're employing a talisman.
Sometimes it's a ring or amulet, but usually it's a belt. The talisman provides an anchor for a spirit of
bestial rage. Nasty thing from the bad side of the Nevernever. That spirit wraps around a human
personality to keep it from being destroyed."
"A kind of insulation," I said.
"Exactly. It leaves you with your own intellect and reason, but the spirit handles everything
else."
I frowned. "Sounds a little easy."
"Oh, sure," Bob said. "It's really easy. And when you use a talisman to turn into a wolf, you
lose all of your human inhibitions and so on, and just run on your unconscious desires, with the
talisman-spirit in charge of the way the body moves. It's really efficient. A huge wolf with humanlevel intelligence and animal-level ferocity."
[…]
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Bob said nothing while I added the ingredients, and when I was finished I said, "Most people
don't have the strength to control a spirit like that, I'd think. It would influence their actions. Maybe
even control them. Suppress their conscience."
"Yeah. So?"
"So it sounds more like you'd be creating a monster."
"It's effective," Bob said. "I don't know about the good or the evil of the thing. That's
something that only you mortals worry about."
"What did you call this flavor again?"
"Hexenwolf," Bob said, with a strong Germanic accent. "Spell wolf. The Church declared war
on anyone who chose to become a Hexenwolf, and burned a huge number of people at the stake."
"Silver bullets?" I asked. "Bitten and turn into a werewolf?"
"Would you get off this 'bitten and turn into a werewolf' kick, Harry?" Bob said. "It doesn't
work that way. Not ever. Or you'd have werewolves overrunning the entire planet in a couple of
years."
"Fine, fine," I sighed. "What about the silver bullets?"
"Don't need them."
"All right," I said, and continued jotting down information to put together for Murphy in a
report. "Hexenwolf. Got it. What else?"
"Lycanthropes," Bob said.
"Isn't that a psychological condition?"
"It might also be a psychological condition," Bob said. "But it was a reality first. A lycanthrope
is a natural channel for a spirit of rage. A lycanthrope turns into a beast, but only inside his head. The
spirit takes over. It affects the way he acts and thinks, makes him more aggressive, stronger. They
also tend to be very resistant to pain or injury, sickness; they heal rapidly—all sorts of things."
"But they don't actually shapeshift into a wolf?"
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"Give that boy a Kewpie," Bob said. "They're just people, too, but they're awfully fierce. Ever
heard of the Norse berserkers? Those guys were lycanthropes, I think. And they're born, not made."
I stirred the stimulant potion, and made sure it was at an even simmer. "And what was the
last one? Loop what?"
"Loup-garou," Bob said. "Or that was the name Etienne the Enchanter used for them, before
he got burned at the stake. The loup-garou are the major monsters, Harry. Someone has cursed them
to become a wolflike demon, and usually at the full moon. That someone's got to be really powerful,
too, like a major heavyweight sorcerer or a demon lord or one of the Faerie Queens. When the full
moon comes, they transform into a monster, go on a killing spree, and slaughter everything they
come across until the moon sets or the sun rises."
A sudden little chill went over me, and I shivered. "What else?"
"Supernatural speed and power. Supernatural ferocity. They recover from injuries almost
instantly, if they become hurt at all. They're immune to poison and to any kind of sorcery that goes
for their brain. Killing machines."
"Sounds great. I guess this hasn't happened all that often? I'd have heard something by now."
"Right," Bob said. "Not often. Usually, the poor cursed bastard knows enough to shut himself
away somewhere, or to head out into the wilderness. The last major loup-garou rampage happened
around Gevaudan, France, back in the sixteenth century. More than two hundred people were killed
in a little more than a year."
"Holy shit," I said. "How did they stop it?"
"They killed it," Bob said. "Here's where the silver bullets finally come in, Harry. Only a silver
weapon can hurt a loup-garou, and not only that, the silver has to be inherited from a family
member. Inherited silver bullets."
"Really? Why would that work and not regular silver?"
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"I don't make the laws of magic, Harry. I just know what they are and have an idea of when they're
changing. That one hasn't changed. I think maybe it has something to do with the element of
sacrifice."
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